Nabobs a study of the social life of the English in eighteenth century India

THE NABOBS

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THE NABOB AT HOME

[Frontispiece

MINlSr^

THE NABOBS

A STUDY OF THE SO CIAL LIFE OF THE
ENGLISH IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY INDIA

)

BY

T. G. P. SPEAR,

Tb.D. (Cantab.), Lecturer in History , St. Stephen's College , Delhi

■

HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON NEW YORK BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS
1932

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PRINTED 1JT GREAT BRITAIN BY HEADLEY BROTH ITRS
109 K1KG6WAY, LONDON, W.C.2 ; ANI) ASHFORD, KENT

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PREFACE

The object of this essay is to treat the social life of the English
in eighteenth century India as a connected whole, to trace and
account for the various phases of its development. While several
studies of various localities and different portions of the period exist,
no attempt, so far as I am aware, has yet been made to treat the
subject as a whole.

In thus taking a broad survey of the whole century I have tried
to lay comparatively less stress on the picturesque and eccentric
sides of Anglo-Indian life, a side which has already been sufficiently
exploited and which will long continue to provide a fund of diverting
anecdote to any writer who will read a few contemporary travel
books. Instead I have tried to distinguish the different phases of
the settlement life, and to trace a logical connexion between them.
So I have sought to describe, not a series of brilliant and fantastic
episodes, but everyday life as lived by everyday men. If this
should result in a loss of dramatic quality it stiould also bring a
more real understanding of the period.

Apart from these general considerations, the special interest of
the period is that it witnesses the transition from isolated com¬
mercial factory life to a vigorous settlement life, when each station
was a small English city in itself. This period of social transition
has a further importance in that many of the problems of racial
relations in India had their rise at this time.

The sources for this subject are large and widely spread. The
difficulty has lain, not in the paucity of material, but in the lack of
any certain source of information. Nearly all the information
provided by records, travellers' reports and diarists, is given only
incidentally to some larger subject, with the consequence that the
investigator finds himself often vainly tapping the most apparently
obvious authorities, and occasionally stumbling upon rich mines
of information in quite unexpected places.

The first and most obvious source has been the published
records or selections from records of the India Office, like C. R.
Wilson’s Early A nnals of the English in Bengal , and H. D. Love's

V

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^V«€ 0 tges of Old Madras. These are chiefly based on the Public

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PREFACE

Consultations, the Letters to and Despatches from the Directors.

Next .come the Company’s Records themselves. The Despatches
and Letters Received, proved to be mines of occasional information.
From about 1730 the general records become more and more purely
commercial and political, and the subsidiary records are more useful.
The series of Wills, which begins in Calcutta about 1730, has some
interesting information. The Series of Bengal Inventories, which
extends from 1755 to 1780 throws much valuable light on European
customs and ways of living, and the ' Europeans in India ’ series is
invaluable for the criminal section of the later settlement population.
Most valuable and uncertain of all, perhaps, are the various Mis¬
cellaneous series, the Home and the Factory Miscellaneous Series
in London, and the Home Miscellaneous Series in Calcutta.

After the records themselves come letters and diaries. Many
of these, like Mrs. Fay’s Letters from India and William Hickey’s
Memoirs have been published, and many others exist in manu¬
script in libraries and private collections. Finally come books of
travel. They vary a great deal in authority, and have always to
be treated with caution. Some, however, like those of Thomas
Ovington and Charles Lockyer, are of outstanding merit. A list
of works consulted will be found at the end of the volume.

With regard to Indian names, the modem spelling has been used
everywhere except in the case of quotations when the original
spelling has been retained, and in the case of such words as ‘ Moghul
4 Lucknow ’, or c Cawnpore ’, which may now be regarded as having
been naturalised into the language.

The word ' Anglo-Indian ’ has been used in the sense of an
Englishman resident in India, and the word ' Eurasian ’ has been
retained for those who are now officially known as Anglo-Indians.
In the first case the current eighteenth century usage is followed
to save possible confusion in the case of quotations ; while the
second word is adopted as comprehending the Indo-French and
Indo-Portuguese or ' Luso-Indians ’ as well as the Anglo-Indians
proper.

For the general reader, who may desire some historical back¬
ground to the period, a sketch of the political history of 18th century
India has been added. It will be found as Appendix A on p. 175.

PREFACE

In conclusion I would express my deep debt of gratitude to
Mr. W. A. J. Archbold, whose constant interest, kindly counsel
and friendly encouragement made this book possible, and the
preparation of it a pleasure. I also owe grateful thanks to Pro¬
fessor H. H. Dodwell for his interest and his advice on a number of
difficult points, to Mr. C. R. Young, of St. Stephen's College, Delhi,
who not only read over the whole in manuscript, but also spent
many hours in de-orientalising its grammar, to my colleagues of the
History department of St. Stephen's, Mr. R. S. Capron, Mr. K. M.
Sarkar, and Mr. I. H. Qureshi, whose cheerful and ungrudging
acceptance of extra burdens rendered the completion of the work
possible, and to many other friends whose sympathy, advice and
forbearance have lightened and sweetened my task.

T.G.P.S.

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CONTENTS

PAGE

I.

The Early Settlements to 1750

I

II.

The Transition Period, 1750-85

23

III.

The Later Settlements

42

IV.

Bombay

66

V.

The Mofussil

80

VI.

Sidelights of Anglo-Indian Life

95

VII.

Chaplains and Missionaries

105

VIII.

Racial Relations

126

IX.

Conclusion

145

Notes

..

149

Appendixes

A.

Sketch of the Political History of India

in the Eighteenth Century

175

B.

A Selection of Inventories contained in the

Factory Miscellaneous Records, the Public
Despatches, and the Bengal Inventories ..

178

C.

Select Book Lists of the Eighteenth Century

189

D.

Selection of European Crimes in Bengal,

1766-1800

195

E.

English and Indian Mutual Opinions

198

F.

List of Records, Manuscripts and Printed

Books consulted

205

Index

211

ILLUSTRATIONS

{Reproduced by kind permission of the Librarian of the Indus Office and of the British Museum

Authorities)

The Nabob at Home . . • . ♦ • * • Frontispiece

Facing page

Europeans watching a Nautch Girl dancing .. • • 21

Fight between a Buffalo and a Tiger

The Griffin .. . . . . * • * • • • • 4 **

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• Go

Facing page

Scene in Bombay .. .. . . . . .. .. .. 75

A Family at Table under a Punkah .. . . .. 96

Church Entrance to Dharamtollah . . .. .. . . 11 1

Lord Wellesley at the Nawab of Oudh's Breakfast Party

and Elephant Fight .. . . .. .. .. 134

MNlSTfiy

Chapter I

<SL

THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS TO 1750

The study of English life in India in the eighteenth century is of
interest from two points of view. First the settlements themselves
underwent during the century a striking transformation. From small
collections of traders and seamen they developed into large settle¬
ments, each with a vigorous corporate life and a subsidiary life of
isolation and adventure in the provinces ; from communities based
entirely on trade, a sort of exiled union of commercial travellers,
they became imperial cities largely made up of soldiers, and com¬
pletely imbued with a military and imperial spirit. At the
beginning the soldiers wished their swords were pens, that they
might make money more easily ; at the end, as is well known, the
clerks turned their pens into swords, while merchants converted
their bank balances into coronets. During the century, the trans¬
formation was steadily going on, which, aided by the large influx of
short term royal soldiers in the middle of the period, and by mature
politicians, scholars and traders in the latter half, wrought before
its close a complete revolution in the habits, numbers and outlook
of the settlements. Governor Thomas Pitt and Lord Wellesley,
men of a similar masterful temper, well sum up this difference.
The climax of the former's career was the acquisition of the Pitt
diamond, which laid the foundation of the Pitt family’s fortunes in
the eighteenth century ; of Wellesley’s the virtual establishment of
British supremacy by the defeat of the Marachas.

The second point of interest is the effect on the English settlers
of a distant and alien environment, of a complicated civilization
with few points of contact with their own. Traditionally endowed
with national pride from the time of the Venetian ambassador who
reported that ‘ whenever they see a handsome foreigner they say
that he looks like an Englishman’, how would they react to the
pride of the Moghuls, or be later affected by the heady wine of
political and military power ? Would there be absorption, as in
the case of the Portuguese, or real intennixt.ure, or a rigidly oil and
water relation ? The position, at first simple owing to the isolation
of both settlers and Indians from outside influence, became later
complicated by two factors—the increasing contact of England with
India and the influx from Europe of many purely temporary
residents, and the discovery of the superiority of European military

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THE NABOBS

7er Indian methods of warfare. All problems of cultural
racial relationships and political adjustments, which have
since puzzled Indians and English alike, had their rise during this
period and had taken recognizable shape by the year 1800.

At the opening of the century English society was confined to
the four main settlements of Madras (Fort St. George), Calcutta
(Fort William), Surat and Bombay. In only one of these, Bombay,
did they enjoy full political sovereignty, and that settlement,
ravaged as it was by disease, by war and internal dissension, showed
no sign of its future greatness. Of the others, Calcutta had recently
been founded (1690) by Job Charnock in the midst of a disastrous
war with the Moghuls ; Surat was suffering from the ravages of the
interminable Maratha war; and Madras, under the wary guidance
of the ex-interloper Thomas Pitt, was embarrassed equally by the
Marathas, who had just been dislodged from the fortress of Gingi
after a siege of eight years, and by the mingled threats and civilities
of the Moghul general Da'ud Khan. Nor were the English the only
Europeans in the field. They were only one of many rivals, all
competing for the India trade, all equally ready to over-reach each
other, all equally dependent on Indian governmental favour.
Madras was balanced by Pondicherry, Negapatam and Tranquebar, 1
and Calcutta by French Chandemagore, Dutch Chinsura and
Danish Serampore ; 2 the Dutch held Ceylon and the Portuguese
Goa, and the Imperial Ostend Company also appeared on the scene
for a time .3 In the older centres of trade like Masulipatam,
Murshidabad and Surat the chief nations of Europe outwitted and
intrigued against each other as if they had never left Europe. The
merchants still lived in collegiate settlements, desiring only peace in
their time, very respectful to the aged autocrat Aurungzeb, and
continually apprehensive of the provincial Moghul governors. They
were intensely jealous of outside interference and regarded inter¬
loping as the deadly sin ; but they had not escaped dissension
amongst themselves, and to the seizure of Bombay by Keigwin and
the troubles of the Child regime were now added the rivalry of the
old and new companies. 4 The actual conditions of the settlements
are fortunately described for 11s by three singularly accurate and
intelligent travellers, who all visited India about the beginning of
the century—the interloper Alexander Hamilton,* the chaplain
Ovington and the trader Lockyer. Captain Hamilton, the first of
these, combined a nautical love of a story and a not unnatural
indignation against the East India Company's distaste for
‘ interloping ’—* though the conscript fathers of the Colony disagree
in many points among themselves, yet they all agree in oppressing
strangers \ 6 he ruefully remarks,—with a faculty of accurate

sciepce o
^contacts,

THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS TO 1750

^ n ^seiA a t i on and clear description. He thus describes the new-
sunded settlement of Calcutta.

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The English settled there about the year 1690, and after
the Moghul had pardoned all the Robberies and Murders
committed on his Subjects, Mr. Job Charnock, being then the
Company's agent in Bengal, he had liberty to settle an
Emporium in any part of the River's side below Hughly, and
for the sake of a large shady tree chose that place, tho' he
could not have chosen a more unhealthful place on all the
River ; for three miles to the North Eastward is a saltwater
lake that overflows in September and October and then
prodigious numbers of fish resort thither, but in November
and December, when the floods are dissipated these fishes
are left dry and with their putrefaction affect the air
with thick stinking vapours, which the North-East Winds
bring with them to Fort William, that they cause a yearly
Mortality. Fort William was built an irregular Tetraon [sic]
of brick and mortar called Puckah , which is a composition of
Brick-dust, Lime Molasses and cut Hemp and is as hard as
and tougher than firm Stone or Brick, and the lown was
built without Order as the Builders thought most convenient
for their own Affairs, everyone taking in what Ground most
pleased them for Gardening so that in most houses you must
pass through a Garden into the House, the English building
near the River's Side and the Natives within Land . . .
About fifty yards from Fort William stands the Church built
by the pious Charity of Merchants residing there . . .

The Governor’s house in the Fort is the most regular Piece
of architecture that I ever saw in India. And there are many
convenient Lodgings for Factors and Writers within the Fort
and some storehouses for the Company's Goods and the
Magazines for their Ammunition. The Company has a
pretty good Hospital at Calcutta, where'many go in to
undergo the Penance of Physick but few come out to give
account of its Operation. The Company has also a pretty
good garden that furnishes the Governor's Table with
Herbage and Fruits ; and some Fish-ponds to serve his
kitchen with good Carp, Calkrop and Mullet. ... In
Calcutta all religions arc freely tolerated but the Presbyterian,
and that they browbeat. The Pagans carry their Idols in
Procession thro' the Town, the Roman Catholics hav • their
Church to lodge their Idols in and the Mohamedan is not
discountenanced ; but there are no Polemicks, except what

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THE NABOBS

are between our High-Church Men and our Low or betwe.__
the Governor’s party and other private Merchants on Points
of Trade.

Madras was a more developed and flourishing settlement than
Calcutta ; it had enjoyed a longer history and under Governor Pitt
experienced greater prosperity in spite of the anxiety caused by the
movements of the Moghul armies engaged in the Maratha wars.
Charles Lockyer about 1710 was enthusiastic.

The prospect it gives (he says) is most delightful; nor
appears it less magnificent by Land ; the great Variety of
fine Buildings that gracefully overlook its Walls, affording
an inexpressible Satisfaction to a curious Eye. Towards the
Land it is washed by a fruitful River that every November,
half a Mile distant, discharges itself into the Sea, the Bar
being first cut for its passage, which proceeding from the
wet Monsoon, would otherwise occasion great Damage, by
overflowing the adjacent Country. . . . The Streets are
straight and wide, pav’d with Brick on each Side, but the
Middle is deep Sand for carts to pass in : Where are no
Houses are Causeways with trees on each side to supply the
Defect. These being always green render it pleasant to those
who otherwise must walk in the Sun. There are five Gates—
the Sea, St. Thomas, Water, Choultry and Middle Gate. The
Second and the Fourth may be opened for Passengers at any
time of Night, if unsuspected, but neither of the other three
after Six. The Publick Buildings are the Town Hall, St.
Mary's Church, The College, New House and Hospital, with
the Governor’s Lodgings in the inner Fort. . . . The
inhabitants enjoy perfect Health as they would do in England,
which is plainly discovered by their ruddy Complexions ; a
good few of our other Settlements can boast. The Heats in
Summer are the greatest Inconveniency they suffer under ;
yet I never heard of any ill effect from them. The delicious
Fruits which the Country abounds with are a great Help in
their Extremity; nor are they wanting to themselves in
other Respects ; Bathings and Wet Cloths being often apply 'd
with Success to the Relief of the Panting. It seldom lasts
above four or five Hours in a day ; when the Sea-breeze
comes on, the Town seems to be new bom. The Governor,
during the Hot Winds, retires to the Company’s new Garden
for Refreshment, which he has made a very delightful Place
of a barren one. The costly Gates, lovely Bowling Green,
spacious Walks, Teal-pond and Curiosities preserved in

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THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS TO 1750

several Divisions axe worthy to be admired. Lemons and
Grapes grow there, but five shillings worth of Water and
: Attendance will scarcely mature them. 8

Bombay, the only other settlement under English control of
any size, is thus described by Ovington.

The island lies in about Nineteen Degrees North, in which
is a Fort, which is the Defence of it, flanked and Lined
according to the Rules of Art, and secured with many Pieces
of Ordinance, which command the Harbours and the parts
adjoining. In this one of the Company's Factors always
resides, who is appointed Governor to inspect and manage
the Affairs of the Island; and who is vested with an
authority in civil as well as Military Matters, to see that the
several Companies of Soldiers who are here, as well as the
Factors and Merchants, attend their various Stations and
their respective Charge.

The Island is likewise beautified with several elegant
Dwellings of the English and neat Apartments of the
Portuguese to whom is permitted the free exercise of their
Religion.?

Hamilton is less enthusiastic :

The ground is sterile and not to be improved. It has but
little good Water on it and the Air is somewhat unhealthful,
which is chiefly imputed to their dunging their Cocoanut
Trees with Buckshoe, a Sort of small Fishes which their Sea
abounds in. These being laid to the Roots of the Irees,
putrefy, and cause a most, unsavoury Smell; in the Mornings
there is generally seen a thick Fog among those Trees that
affects both the Brains and Lungs of Europeans and breeds
Consumptions, Fevers and Fluxes. 10

Mortality was heavy and gave rise to the proverb : ' I wo
Monsoons are the Age of a Man.' 11 In addition both writers testified
to the devastation caused by Sir J. Child's war with the Moghul.
Bombay was but a shadow of its former self under Gerald Aungier.
* Of the seven or eight Hundred English that inhabited before the
War, there were not above sixty left by the Sword and Plague and
Bombay, that was one of the pleasantest Places in India, was
brought to one of the most dismal Deserts.' 12

This is th '. picture of the English Settlements at the opening of
the century—a deserted Bombay, a rising Calcutta, and a flourishing
Madras already divided into three distinct parts, the Fort for the
English, Maqua Town to the south for the boatmen and Black

THE NABOBS

v r n where the Indian merchants lived .*3 The societies which
tese settlements contained had trade for their sole reason for
existence, and were severely paternal in character. At their head
was their President or Governor, a being poised midway, so to speak,
between heaven and earth, to the settlement a sort of tutelary deity!
to Indian ambassadors and durbars the representative of the
Britannic Majesty, and to the Directors an inveterate object of
suspicion, liable to supersession and dismissal with each despatch
from England. In the settlement itself he kept up considerable
state; he never went abroad, says Lockyer, without being attended
by eighty armed peons as well as English guards, with two Union
flags carried before him and ‘ country musick enough to frighten
a stranger into belief the men were mad At Surat he did much
the same. In India he was as a prince, to the Directors a chief
merchant, to be all the more narrowly watched because the oppor¬
tunities of abusing his power were great. Every Governor was
liable to have his character blackened by the Members of his Council
in private letters to the Directors, and though such informing was
strongly reprobated when discovered as in the case of Robert Orme, 1 *
few of the early Governors' consciences can have been clear enough
to enable them to greet the arrival of a company's ship from England
with unaffected pleasure or to open their private despatches without
a tremor. The Governor was usually no exceptional man. He was
the senior member of Council, the eldest of the few who had survived

the.strain of English habits in a tropical climate, and owed his
position more to longevity and a tough constitution than to anything
else. The appointment of an outsider like the interloper Thomas
Pitt was most exceptional, and in his case was only due to the fact
that it was the only way to get rid of his interloping. The Governor's
duties were as much commercial as political ; he was the chairman
of a* board rather than a proconsul. As such, he had no power of
over-riding his colleagues and only a casting vote in the event of a
tie. He spent most of his time, when not in the consultation room,
in the sorting godowns, inspecting and checking the country goods,
preparing the annual cargoes, and receiving goods from Europe, and
only as a secondary duty maintained order in the factory and
negotiated with the country powers. 16 He was not yet intoxicated
by military success nor dazzled by dreams of empire. His first duty
was the profit of ‘his Honourable masters', his second good order,
and his third good relations with the country powers. His judicial
power over Europeans was very limited, and the position about
capital punishment was not finally cleared up until the Charter of
1726 .*7

Apart from his Council the Governor was little more than a

MIN/Sr^

THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS TO 1750 1

fed figure-head, chiefly distinguished by his larger salary __
r ances, his private garden for the hot weather and his rather
more obvious personal pomp. This lack of real power in his
commercial capacity which the Company's jealousy and the mer¬
chants' independence combined to effect, contrasted with the
splendour the Governor assumed as head of the settlement, a
splendour adopted partly by reaction from his practical impotence,
partly as a salve to the wounds which letters from his * honourable
masters ' periodically inflicted on him, and partly in order to impress
the Indian mind. 18

Next to the Governor came the Councillors, consisting of senior
merchants arranged in order of seniority. Together with the
Governor they formed the governing body and with the other senior
merchants the aristocracy of the settlement. In style they were a
little below the Governor but, like him, their chief concern was trade,
and like him, they were deeply committed to private commerce, in
addition to the Company's trade. As each man had risen through
the grades of Writer, Factor, Junior and Senior Merchant to his
place in the Council by seniority, and owed his promotion to the
irectors and not to the Governor, and as each hoped in due course
0 succeed to the Governor’s chair, ambition and self-esteem united
with their natural independence to make them assertive, sometimes
°. tractive, and often quarrelsome. The Council was often more a
rm g l0r verbal fencing than a place of sober discussion, each member
suspecting all the others as possible competitors and being always
ready to go behind the President in appeals to the Directors. Thus
jn turbulent Bombay, we find John Lock being suspended from
Council in 1701 for striking Sir Nicholas Waite and refusing to
apologize, and the absence of another Member, Benjamin Morse,
rom Council, was explained on the ground that his intellect was
sordered by liquor and that he was * unfit for virtuous conversa-
lon . 9 Later this same reverend senior caused further scandal by
ge tmg drunk in another senior’s room and finally breaking his head
* a bottle. But vanity and self-assertion, equally with the
^eakn ess of the flesh, were fruitful of incidents. In the Bengal
u ic Consultations we find Benjamin Walker being fined Rs.20 for
abusing Mr. Hedges by using bad language to him '. 20 In 1706
^ iong and stormy debate ’ took place on receiving the news of
P e location of seats on the Council between the old and new
ompany's servants in Calcutta. 31 In 1708 it is reported that ‘ in
spite of much stormy discussion they cannot come to a decision ',
vv le ^ e upon they agreed * to cast lots as our masters have bidden us
m times of disagreement \ 32 A few years earlier Mr. Hedges had
put the following questions to his Council:—

2

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THE NABOBS

Is either of the Chairmen obliged to answer the challenge 1
every bully that pretends to be affronted and challenges him
to a fight ?

2. Are any other of the Council obliged to fight on a like
challenge ?

3, If one of the Chairmen be challenged without offering abuse
for the Council, is the party challenged only affronted or the
whole Council ? 2 3

(St

The occasion for this questionnaire was the challenge of a
certain Captain Smith to Mr. Hedges to combat because the Captain
considered himself insulted by not having the Fort guns fired in his
honour on his arrival. This condition of morbid sensitiveness
lingered on throughout the century, and a somewhat similar
incident was one of Sir P. Francis's first grounds of complaint against
Hastings.

Below the Council came the Senior and Junior Merchants, the
Factors and the Writers, and outside the ranks of the Company’s
servants would come a sprinkling of free merchants. In Madras
these .were sufficiently numerous to justify the appointment of
twelve Aldermen for life or residence in Madras with a Mayor chosen
annually by them. 24 The Mayor,, whose office lasted throughout
the century, presided at the Mayor's Court, which tried all cases
civil and criminal with a right of appeal to the Council in civil cases
where the value of the award exceeded three pagodas, or in Indian
criminal cases where the offender was condemned to lose life or
limb. 2 * The Mayor and Aldermen had their own sense of dignity.
They were allowed ‘ to enjoy the Honour and Priveledge of wearing
Rundellos and Kettysols bom over them, and . . . may ride on
Horseback in the same Order as is used by the Lord Mayor and
Aldermen of London, having their Horses decently furnished with
Saddles, Bridles and other Trimmings after one form and manner ’.

The President and Council acted as a Court of Appeal, but the
presence of two authorities in so small a community did not make
for harmony, and it is hardly surprising to hear of disputes between
the two. During a quarrel in 1702, the Mayor on receiving the
Governor's messenger, snatched the Governor's lette^ from his hand
before he had time to read it, with the remark that it might contain
' that which was not fit to be read ' or for him 1 to hear ', which
expression, says the Council, * we can't but condemn as impudent
and saucy V 6

At Madras two or three Councillors, if bachelors, resided in the
Governor's house, or otherwise, like the Senior Merchants, had houses
inside the Fort .*7 In the early days Armenian and Jewish merchants

MIN/Sr^

THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS TO 1750

apuchin Fathers also had houses within the Fort, but as tm,
- [ ^ ers of the English grew they were from 1743 gradually
eliminated by the process of refusing any further entrants. 28 There
remained the Factors, the young writers and the soldiers. The
former were housed in a College, the residence, says Lockyer, of
seven or eight hopeful young gentlemen \ The building, he says,
was * very ancient, two Storeys high and has a paved Court, two
large Verandas or Piazzas and about sixteen small rooms in it * ; 2 9
and according to Hamilton was in ‘ ill repair \ 3 ° They had long
been strictly forbidden to be out of the Fort after the gates were
shut, and the resulting use of windows for doors and of walls for
ladders was so general as to cause Sir William Langhorne to threaten
every offender with transhipment to England, ' there to receive
condign punishment.^ In 1712 a new college was built, because
factors lodging out were considered * less likely to mincf our affairs
and more subject to temptation \ The writers were a constant
source of trouble both now and later. Their attention to their work
is thus described by Davenport in a letter from Bombay to the
Secretary of the Directors.

In the Generali Letter by the Heathcote I observe the
complaints against not margening the Consultations and the
ill transcribing of the Letters, to which I answer that the
young Gentlemen that are sent out writes [s*c] those Letters,
and generally the best of their writing, and when they have
learned [s*c] one to write but tollerable well, and begin to
understand business, they grow dissatisfyed and uneasy as
being where nothing is to be got, so make an Interest to be
removed to some other Employ more advantageous. 3 *

1111726 there were complaints of the number of writers in debt,
and a suggestion was made to send them in rotation to the sub-
s ations so that they might learn business and the language, and
avoi the temptations of Calcutta ;33 and in 1752 the Directors were
s if complaining of bad writing and faulty accounts, and insisting
lat writers must live within their income and have neither
palanquin, horse or chaise .34

Tiie garrison of Madras, according to Lockyer, consisted of
wo hundred and fifty Europeans, two hundred Topasses35 or ' black
. u ^£ re J Portuguese\ and two hundred armed peons. 3 6 They lodged
Y 1 he New House *, the scene of many a drunken frolic, where
eac 1 soldier kept his Boy, who tho* not more than ten years old,
^? c J lrer Valet d e Chambre, for seven or eight fanhams a
, lnon 1 ,37 Iheir main duty was to mount guard and particularly
0 sce no disturbance is made in the streets thro’ which they pass ;

THE NABOBS

<SL

^ hppress gaming houses, to stop all people suspected to be running
^ goods \ 3 8

Apart from the Company's servants, and the free merchants,
the only representatives of the professions were the Company's
Chaplains and Surgeons. The Chaplains were the more important
of the two. They enjoyed a salary and a precedence, in true
Puritan style, next to the Governor himself, while the Surgeon had
to wait long before he could obtain regular fees from his patients or
even commissioned rank. Indeed he was not even always left alone
to do his own work ; at Surat his duties were shared with an Indian
physician. 39 In consequence the early surgeons frequently aban¬
doned their profession for trade, and their places were filled by men
with no knowledge of medicine. The Chaplain's duty was to read
public prayers thrice on Sundays, to take morning and evening
prayers at 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. —in Calcutta it was changed from
io a.m. to 8 p.m. as the former hour interfered with business 40 —
to catechize all the youth ' and to visit the sub-stations. 41 In
practice a large part of his duties must have consisted of funerals,
particularly in the hot season, in one of which Hamilton says there
were 460 funerals in Calcutta out of 1,200 English in four months. 42
There were churches at both Madras and Calcutta, one half-built at
Bombay at the beginning of the century, and at Surat a chapel
' decently embellish 't ' without images in order to avoid offence to
the Mohammedans. The early chaplains were influenced to some
extent by Puritanism, but the strain of the climate caused frequent
vacancies, when prayers were said by the President or some Factor
who received a special allowance.^ The spirit of the amateur was
supreme in the early settlements ; as the doctors drifted off into
trade, so laymen like Manucci and Voulton became doctors. 44 We
find one chaplain being dismissed for his commercial proclivities, 4 *
and the Rev. G. Lewis being appointed to the proposed embassy to
the Moghul in 1709 as being ' a very worthy, sober, ingeneous man,
and understands the Persian language very well '. 46 In 1713 he
secured the surrender of Fort St. David by the recalcitrant Raworth.

I he Hospital and the Punch-houses (in the early days closely
related), frequented by soldiers, sailors and the lower Company's
servants, complete the picture of the early settlements. The
Madras hospital had a good reputation, but the Calcutta one,
according to Hamilton, had not; they depended entirely on a far
from certain supply of conscientious surgeons.

At the opening of the century the English settlements were still
microscopically small, but they were already becoming nuclei of
Indian towns, where Indian merchants, attracted by trade, were
encouraged by the good order and security to settle. In this feature

MINlSr^

THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS TO 1750

Jhg^English settlements contrasted with the Dutch, whose East
ndian factories never grew into great cities, and with the Portuguese,
whose inquisitorial and proselytizing zeal left their cities in the
eighteenth century to be inhabited by monks and nuns and to be
crowded by nothing but churches and monasteries. The confidence
reposed in the government is shown by the ‘ joy' with which the
merchants returned to Madras after the French occupation from
i 746-49. Of the principal factories, only that of Surat was in a
large Indian city, the others being established on new sites like
Fort St. David and Bombay, or being transferred from an old city,
as Madras was from Masulipatam and Calcutta from Hughli. Madras
as the oldest established settlement with a history of more than
half-a-century was the largest ; its population was reckoned at about
300,000 , 4 7 at which figure it remained about stationary throughout
the century; Calcutta, more recently founded, was smaller and
reckoned by Hamilton to have 10,000 to 12,000 inhabitants. 48
Bombay, still overshadowed commercially by Surat, was still in the
stage of Moghul and Maratha alarms, pirates and mortality bills.
Ihe English civilian population of Madras was estimated about
17 00 as 114, twenty-seven being company’s servants, twenty-nine
freemen, thirty-nine sailors, eleven widows and eight ' maidens \ 4 ?
The addition of a company of soldiers would bring the total up to
nearly 400. On the whole Coromandel coast in 1699 there were
estimated to be 119 men and seventy-one women, only forty-seven
of whom were married, and many of whom were not English. 5 0
In Calcutta Hamilton speaks of 1,200 English, of whom 460 were
buried in one hot season. 5 1 Reckoning this figure to include wives
and children and allowing for seamen waiting for their ships, it
would give a permanent population not much greater than that of
Madras. Bombay on the other hand seemed on the point of
extinction. Hamilton reckoned that there were seven to eight
hundred English there before Sir John Child’s governorship, and
only sixty afterwards, and this statement is confirmed by Sir John
Gayer in 1699 who wrote that only seventy-six Europeans were left
on the Island and that they had only one horse and two oxen between
them, 5 *

<§L

With such small numbers a strong corporate life was still
possible. At the opening of the century the English merchants still

,ivc< l w'ltnii (he fort, the gates of which were shut every night, and
they still met for dinner and supper at the common table, at which
the Governor presided. 5 . The factors sat in order of seniority, with
an ensign at the bottom to act as taster, officer, carver and chaplain J 4
the exuberance of the young writers and factors imported an
undergraduate air into the lower part of the room, and the jealousies

K*

MIN/Sr^

THE NABOBS

<SL

ie elders often gave a certain liveliness to the senior table.
Juarrels and brawls were always possible, and if the President was
either weak or neglected his duty of presiding, the atmosphere seems
often to have been that of a bump supper without the bumps.
Sometimes the seniors were absent altogether, when the disorder
naturally grew worse. What might happen is indicated in the
despatch from the Directors in 1710, where they remark, ' We are
sorry to hear that of late there has not been sufficient decorum kept
up among our people, and particularly among the young writers and
factors, and that there has been Files of Musqueteers sent for to
keep the peace at dinner time.’55 Two years later the absence of
the seniors led to further disorders, and a steward was appointed to
housekeep. The Company’s servants believed in liberal fare washed
down by copious draughts. At Surat, says Ovington, an English,
a Portuguese and an Indian cook were maintained, the choicest
meats were eaten and Persian and European wines, English beer and
Arrack punch, were ' drunk with temperance and alacrity ’> He
lovingly describes the various dishes—palau ; ' cabob ’—beef and
mutton cut small, and sprinkled with salt and pepper, dipped with
oil and garlic, and roasted with herbs; dumpoked fowl—boiled with
butter in a small dish and stuffed with raisins and almonds ; mangoe
achar and sony sauce. The feasts provided on Sundays and' Publick
days included f Deer and Antelopes, Peacocks, hares and partridges,
and all kinds of Persian Fruits, Pistachoes, Plums, Apricots,
Cherries, etc.’ With this we may compare Woolaston’s list in 1717,
which included' Kishmishes, Bengali Goats, Sugar Candy, Almonds,
Brahminy Bull, Soyce, Turkeys, Geese, Sheep, Rabbits and Lime ’.57
All these things, he complains, had greatly increased in price, but
he had also to explain the increased expense of the general table at
Calcutta by the fact that the Company’s servants now had fifteen
courses for both dinner and supper, instead of their former diet of
milk, salt-fish and rice for supper and nine dishes for dinner. 5 8 The
provision of wine was on the same liberal scale as the food. 4 With

the factors you have a great deal of punch and a little wine, with the
Governor what wine you please and as little Punch.’59 The
difficulty of growing grapes in India early caused the importation of
European and Persian wines which in 1717 already arrived in these
varieties 60 —a specimen dietary of the settlements is given in the
Madras Dialogues —' Mountain Wine, Rhenish, Syder, Galicia.
Florence, Hock, Canary, Brandy, Claret, Ale, Beer, Shyrash Wine.' 6x

But the meals at the common table did not constitute the whole
social life of the settlements. The collegiate factory life was based
on the idea of celibacy, and it could not long survive the advent of
women. At the beginning of the century they were already allowed

miSTfiy

THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS TO 1750

<SL

the Company to come out, partly in order to prevent illicit unions
with country women and partly to lessen the temptation to many
Portuguese Roman Catholics. 62 But as yet there were few of them
and in consequence husbands were easy prey. Ovington already
remarks that an Englishwoman in India could be sure of a succession
of wealthy and choleric husbands. The consequence of this shortage
was twofold : some married French and Portuguese wives, but more
remained single and established zenanas. In 1678-1679 there were
seventy-four Company's servants in Madras ; 6 3 only six were
married of which five had their wives with them. One of the
wives was English, one Dutch, two English half-castes, and two
Portuguese. In addition there were three widows and two un¬
married ladies in the settlement and sixteen other Europeans in
white or black town. In 1699, 64 of 119 recorded Englishmen on the
Coromandel coast twenty-six had English wives, fourteen ‘ Castee' 65
wives, four * Mustees ', 66 two French and one a Georgian wife. The
remaining twentj'-four women consisted of fourteen widows and ten
‘ single English young women '. There was no very lasting colour
prejudice in the early eighteenth century, and marriage with
coloured women was accepted as the normal course. During most
of the century sons of domiciled families were considered to have a
moral right to employment. Companies of Top asses 6 ? were
employed extensively and we wait till the nineteenth century to
hear the bitter complaints of Colonel Skinner at his gradual super¬
session on grounds of race, and his placation with the Order of the
Bath. 68

What the English women lost in numbers, however, they amply
made up in vigour. Lockyer says that they were as active in trade
as the men and their influence is traceable in not a few of the early
quarrels. In 1706 the Calcutta Council received a letter from Mr.
Arthur King, a factor in the Company's service, who considered
himself insulted because the surgeon's wife had taken her place in
church above his wife. 6 ? He asked the Council to order that his
wife should be placed above the surgeon's wife in future. After an
attempt to settle the matter privately, he wrote again to say that
the surgeon's wife continued ' to squat down ' in his wife's place,
and that if they would not see to it he would let them know that
they as well as he ‘ had masters in England, and that they must
hold themselves responsible for any disturbance or unseemly conduct
that inay happen in Church in consequence '.

1 he general life of the early settlement can already be divided
into official, non-official and military. Each had his particular mode
of life, though they were still united, as afterwards they ceased to be,
.V a n underlying devotion to trade. There was separation without

misr^

THE NABOBS

<SL

elusiveness, there was class but no caste. The ideal of all was the
same—the maximum of wealth in the minimum of time. And if
opportunities were more limited than they later became, if the
branches of the pagoda tree were tougher than subsequently and
less heavily laden with fruit, so that the hands that shook it often
tired before the fruit descended, the vision of a triumphant and
affluent return to England nevertheless shone bright if distant before
the adventurer’s eyes. While wealth was then as a rule only
acquired slowly and with effort, so that many died without ever
attaining it, and many of those who did had lost through long
absence or large establishments the desire or the power to return,
there was always the chance of some unexpected windfall like
Governor Pitt’s diamond to whet men’s appetites and sustain their
hopes. So there were the commercial Governor and Councillor, the
commercial factor and writer, the commercial soldier and surgeon
and the commercial parson, just as later the dazzling prospect of
empire directed everyone’s secret ambition to the army and produced
the military 'writer’ in Clive and the imperialist Governor in
Dupleix.

For the Company’s servants the day opened with morning
prayer at 6 a.m. The morning was devoted to business, the writer
in his office, the Governor in the consultation room (‘ curiously
adorned with fire-arms in several Figures imitating those in the
armoury of the Tower of London ’) 7 ° consulting with the councillors,
or in the godowns examining arrivals of cloth from the interior or
superintending the making up of cargoes for Europe. Dinner at
noon was the grand meal of the day, after which came a period of
rest. 7 1 In the afternoon the junior servants might return to office,
but the seniors would repair to their own or the Company's garden,
or in Calcutta take to the river in budgerows. The more energetic
already drove their own chaises, 7 2 but the evening diversion par
excellence at the beginning of the century was the taking of one's
ease in ' gardens 'neath which rivers flow ’ with the help of arrack,
punch and shiraz wine. In Surat, where the English were most
influenced by this characteristically Moghul custom, the habit
perhaps reached its climax. There, Ovington writes, evening and
morning the factors go to gardens, ‘ and spend an hour or two with
a bottle of wine and a cold collation which they carry with them .’73
The evening was the time for paying calls and for social intercourse
generally. The day was wound up by supper at the common table
and prayers at 8 p.m. ; the gates of the fort were shut at io or ii p.m.
after which none was allowed to go out .74 Eleven p.m. saw a patrol
marching through the streets of Black Town to close late punch
houses and round up tardy revellers, and at midnight the settlement

THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS TO 1750 V^k I

vrffaiild be, at any rate in theory, at rest. This manner of living is
well summed up by Hamilton in his description of Calcutta:

‘ Most gentlemen and ladies live both splendidly and pleasantly, the
forenoons being dedicated to business and after dinner to rest and
in the evenings they recreate themselves in chaises or palanquins
in the fields or to the gardens ; or by water in their budgerows which
is a convenient boat that goes swiftly with the force of oars. On the
river sometimes there is the diversion of fishing or fowling or both,
and before night they make friendly visits to one another, when
pride and contention do not spoil society, which too often they do
among the ladies, as discord and faction do among the men/75

The soldier's life in Madras was not very strenuous. Beginning
with a beat of arms at 7 a.m. it was mainty confined to guard duty
at the Main and Choultry Gates, occasional drill on the island and
to patrolling the streets at night, going the rounds at 10 p.m. and
finally shutting the gates at 11 p.m. 7 6 There was to be no man out
of the factory after gun-fire ' except one sergeant, one corporal and
twelve men, half black, half white, who are to go from the barracks
with arms to the Governor’s Garden house, from thence a sergeant

and six men go at 11 o’clock round the suburbs to see if the boutiques
are all shut and that no disturbance is made in the streets tlirough
which they pass, to suppress gaming houses, to stop all people
suspected to be running of goods. And a corporal and six men go
the same at two '.77 Apart from these not very arduous duties the
privates filled in their time at taverns and punch houses in the
bazaars, and the officers in standing on their dignity or speculating
in trading ventures. The regular Indian army did not begin its
existence until 1746 during the first French war, and until then the
garrisons of Madras and Calcutta were rather commercialized

military police than serious soldiers. 7 8

Such was the daily routine. But, as befitted a society still
influenced by the almost spent force of Puritanism, Sunday was a
day apart. The Directors frequently enjoined a strict observance
of the Sabbath; the settlers observed it but not quite in a spirit
which the Directors could have sympathized with or divines
approved. At Surat 79 prayers were read thrice on Sundays and the
rest of the day was occupied with a feast and a procession to the
Company's garden, with as much magnificence as the factors could
muster. ‘ The President goes thither in a palanquin with six peons,
two large Flaggs or English Ensigns carried in front with Persian
and Arab horses of state richly trapped.’ He was accompanied by
forty or fifty armed peons, then by the councillors in large coaches
decorated with silver and by the other factors in coaches or on
horseback as their means allowed. At Madras church-going seems

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THE NABOBS

<SL

«4Mia.ve been the most solemn event of the day, ‘ Betwixt Eight and
Nine the Bell tells us that the Hour of Devotion draws near, a whole
Company of above 200 soldiers is drawn out from the Inner Fort to
the Church Door, for a Card [szc] to the passing President, Ladies
throng to their Pews, and Gentlemen take a serious Walk in the
Yard if not too hot. On the Governor’s Approach, the Organs
strike up, and continue a Welcome till he is seated, when the
Minister discharges the Duty of his Function, according to the Forms
appointed by our prudent Ancestors of the Church of England .' 80

Apart from the weekly event of Sunday, there were the *
occasional events of particular ceremonies which will be touched on
later, and the seasonal arrival of ships. Then the Sea Gate was
thronged with people, ' some laying wagers, others waiting for
Masters and the rest to satisfy their Curiositys .' 81 On the first day
supplies and passengers were landed and on the second goods which
were sold at ' public outcry ' after a week's notice . 82 To this sale
every man would repair to replenish his stores or his stocks, so that
in the season these sales were one of the centres round which the
life of the settlement revolved.

With early rising and the mid-day siesta, which made two days
out of one, and the absence, for the seniors at any rate, of any official
occupation in the second, time must have lain heavy on the hands
of most of the settlers. This ennui was not alleviated by any hope
of a hill holiday or even of occasional leave, and it was accentuated
both by the enervating effect of the climate and the lack of any
intellectual interests to fall back upon. Clive, who was given the
run of the Governor's library, was the exception who proved the
rule . 8 3 In young writers who came out at the age of fifteen or a
little over, the sudden and complete change of environment, the
deprivation of all familiar and congenial occupations, produced the
helplessness that often overtakes the English soldier in a modern
j Indian cantonment , 84 but with an added sense of solitude and inter¬
minable misery which only the shortsightedness of youth can
experience. 8 * But unlike the modern soldier he had not even
fellows of his own kind with whom to mix ; his little world was
bounded by the Black Town in Madras and the Maradia ditch in
Calcutta, his social life was regulated by the fashions of the punch
house, his ideas borrowed from the gossip of the general table, and
his activities curtailed by the pitiless sun or insidious attacks of
fever. In nothing so much as in sport did he feel the restraints of
his new situation. Most of the more vigorous sports were forbidden
by the climate ; for others like hunting there was at first neither
space nor security, while for racing there were not as yet sufficient
resources. So it was that in the realm of recreation and pleasure he

MIN ISTfy

THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS TO 1750

^as^Mfluenced by Indian customs more than in anything else, and
ecame more Indianized in this respect than he ever did in his
clothes, speech, habits or ideas. Shooting is the first sport which
is mentioned, 86 and bowls were also of course played. Riding and

<SL

coursing were the most vigorous sports ; 8 7 the driving of chaises had
just begun to come in at Madras, but it was at first the luxury of a
few. 88 A less exciting and more modem diversion was picnicking to
Woolf Tope or St. Thomas’s Mount. At the beginning of the
century, there were no houses outside the fort at Madras, but the
picnicking habit led to the building of the first garden houses at
St. Thomas’s Mount. Later they covered the Choultry plain to form
an easy prey to Hyder Ali’s flying squadrons in 1769 and 1780. In
Calcutta the equivalent amusement was provided by trips on the
river in budgerows and the equivalent retreats by the building of

garden houses in the Garden Reach.

But most of these amusements required wealth and were
beyond the means of the writers and junior factors. After work
time hung heavy on their hands, and so they fell back on the one
habit for which there was still ample scope, loafing in the open spaces
and gossiping in taverns. ' Billiards and backgammon in a Punch
House ’ 8 9 were common games, and they easily developed into the
most ancient and characteristic vice of India, gaming. Gambling
is a good index of boredom and of the craving for excitement in an
unintellectual mind, and we can measure the dullness of the early
factors’ lives by the violence of the methods they adopted to relieve
it. Throughout the early period as through the later, there are
notices of the extent and laments of the evils of gaming. In 1720
the Directors wrote to Madras, ' It is of great Concern, we hear of
the itch of gaming hath spread itself over Madras that even the
Gentlewomen play for great Sumes and that Capt. Seton makes a
trade of it to the stripping of several of the young men there. ’ 9 ° In
1728 they wrote in much the same terms to Calcutta, again mention¬
ing the women. Gaming for sums of £10 and upwards was pro¬
hibited as in the Act against gaming in England, and any factor
discovered was to be ipso facto dismissed and sent home.? 1 But in
I 75o the Council are still deploring the evil.? 2

The second solace of the bored Englishman was food and wine.

LS ^ (O unconscionable stomach I), the Englishman

might well have sighed with the Persian poet, for it was at once his
& c hief luxury and principal enemy. For long people did not suspect
>-he connexion between drink and mortality bills, and when they
did, many of them like Hickey continued to drink heavily in spite

misr/ff.

THE NABOBS

The unhealthiness of a heavy meat diet and of gargantuan
meals in the heat of the day seems never to have been suspected,
or if so, was obstinately disregarded .93 Europeans in India early
acquired a reputation as wine-bibbers. Akbar is said by Manucci
to have permitted the sale of wine to his English gunners because
* he said that as the European people must have been created at
the same time as spirits and if deprived of them, were like fish out
of their element, unless they had drink, they would not see plain ’.94

The staple drink at this time was arrack which took the place
of the whisky of the nineteenth century .95 There were two chief
brands, from Bengal, which was the stronger, and from Goa, where
it was of better quality and the staple commodity of the place. 9 6
The Goa arrack was made single, double or treble distilled, of which
the double was most usually exported ; it was drawn in earthen
jars, and acquired therefrom a peculiarly mild character, and it was
used by the English for yeast as well as for drink. Captain Symson,
an authority on these matters, distinguished several sorts and uses
of arrack .97 It was distilled sometimes from rice, sometimes from
toddy and sometimes from black sugar and water mixed with the
bark of a tree called ' Baboul ', when it was known as ' Jagre
Arrack ' and was as ' hot as brandy and drunk in Drams by
Europeans \ Toddy was ' the liquor that runs from the Coco-nut
tree v/ithout any other mixture ', and sold at a quart for a pice or
two. 4 It affects the head as much as English Beer. In the
morning it is laxative and in the evening astringent.' To arrack
also were ascribed medicinal properties, all varieties being reckoned
' good for the gripes \ Symson also described a less well-known
potion called neri. 9 8 This was drawn from the areca tree in a new
earthen vessel and was ' as sweet and pleasant as milk but more
spirituous \ ' Several Europeans,' he remarked, ' lose their lives
by the immoderate use of these tempting liquors with which when
once inflamed, they become so restless that no place is cool enough ;
and therefore they lie down on the ground all night which occasions
their being snatched away in a very short time. The best remedy
after hard drinking is to keep a close and convenient covering/

Arrack formed the basis of punch. Punch is first mentioned
by Albert de Mandelslo in 1638 as 1 Pale-puntz ', or ‘ Pale-pimzen ’
in the original ,99 and was an established drink by 1700. It derived
its name from the number of its ingredients,—arrack, rose water,
citron juice, sugar and water. This was the universal drink in the
first half of the century and gave its name to the Portuguese drinking
taverns.

European wines as well as English beer, 100 as has already been
noticed, were extensively imported from the beginning. Madeira

miST/fy

THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS TO 1750

^ favourite wine, as it was the only one said to improve in the

Indian climate, and 100 pipes were shipped annually to Calcutta and
Madras by the Company. 101 One ship was specially laden with the
wine, and, if it failed to arrive, the year was a lean one indeed. In
addition, Shiraz wine came in chests from Persia ; I0Z the English had
an agent there and it was much drunk until Nadir Shah s invasion
interrupted communication in 1738, and the troubles of the Kajar
dynasty in Persia and the Durranis in Afghanistan made trade
dangerous . I0 3 Even in 1750 it was still included in a list of current
wines . 10 4 We will conclude this section with the list of wines given
in the Madras Dialogues, which it should be remembered speaks foi
the poorer rather than the wealthier sort of settler. IC 5

<8L

John : What liquor is there in the Cellar ?

Peter: There is Beer four Bottles, Claret wine twelve
bottles, Sack nine Bottles and Madeira one hundred
Bottles . . .

John : What sorts of wine are there ?

Peter : In the first place you must know that we have four
and more sorts of French wine, likewise so many sorts of wine
from the Cape of Good Hope. Further there is to be had
White wine, red wine, claret wine, Rhenish wine, C

wine, Muscadel wine. Malmsey wine, Madeira wine, a
wine and Persia-wine.

John : I wonder at the large species of so many sorts of
wines ; but w r hich is the best in this country r

Peter : Dear brother John. Ihey are all together veiy
good but the Madeira wine gives the best taste when drun en
with water.

John : What, good brother Peter, is this to say, Drink with
Water ? I don't understand what you mean.

Peter : Very well, I'll tell you presently the meaning
thereof. If anybody is dry and calls for Drink, he fills the
glass up with three parts of water and one part of Madena
wine and then it is very savoury to quench the Thust

However hard the lot of the Madras factors, they can haully K.
said to have drunk of the water of affliction. There was inevitably
much intemperance; the rule seems to have been that everyone
drank a good deal and a good many of all classes cfi ank too muc ,
the income of the drinker determining only the quality an no
^quantity of the drink. The soldiers and sailors were naturally tne
worst sufferers, since they drank the most fiery liquors. So drun *en
ness appears again and again in the records, from the complain o

miSTfiy

THE NABOBS

Warner in 1676 of factors who continued in a gan
i day and night drinking most excessively ', so that the next
day ‘ a person worthy of credit numbered by the heads 36 pottles ' ; I0 7
through the case of Ensign Fullerton, who was dismissed for
* incorrigible sottishness’ and being two nights successively drunk
on duty ; IoS the fight recorded by Ananda Ranga Pillai between two
drunken councillors in Pondicherry ; I0 9 down to the withdrawal of
an arrack licence in Calcutta from Mr. Hundle in 1758 (which he had
bought for Rs. 4,000) because the military ‘ were continually
intoxicated with liquor in his tavern \ 110

In addition to these drinks, tea was drunk in the north and
coffee in the south. In Bombay and Surat both were drunk by all
classes, both European and Indian. The factors must have acquired
the habit in India, for Mandelslo in 1638 mentions 1 th£ 1 as being
drunk at ordinary meetings every day. 111 The habit was perhaps
taken by the English from the Dutch, who, says Ovington, ‘ used
it as such a standing entertainment, that the tea-pot's seldom off the
Fire or unimploy'd.' 112 It was generally drunk at this time with
sugar candy or small conserved lemons, and mixed with hot spice
was considered good for ' Headach, gravel and griping of the guts \
The Madras Dialogues speak of tin * tea-dishes' and the use of
sugar candy with them in I750. 11C 3 Macdonald in 1771 drank tea
with citron leaves. 11 * After spreading to England, the habit of tea
drinking in its modern form returned again to the India of the later
settlements; Lady Jones in 1790 wrote of returning from drinking
tea in the interval created by the shifting of dinner from noon to
evening. 1 ^

The habit of drinking coffee after a moderate quantity of wine
was also introduced at that time. 116 Ovington did much to popularize
tea-drinking in England by his Essay on Tea , published in 1699,
which aroused a fierce controversy. Tea in India continued as an
addition to more generous potations, and never became a substitute.

I he Company's efforts to recommend the latter view to their factors
never found any response and was not very seriously maintained . 11 7
If drinking after gaming was the most constant diversion of the
factor, a diversion so continuous as almost to be an occupation, he
had an occasional excitement in the form of elaborate ceremonies
and processions, on the visit of some important personage or in
celebration of some auspicious event. The visit of the Moghul
general Nawab Da'ud Khan to Madras in 1701 is thus described :

About twelve this noon the Nabob, the King's Duan and
Buxie was conducted into town by Messrs. Marshall and Meverell, A
the streets being lined with soldiers from St. Thomas Gate up to the
fort and the works mann'd with the Marrein Company handsomely

MINlSr^

EUROPEANS WATCHING A NAUTCH GIRL DANCING

THE Early SETTLEMENTS TO 1750

e£l with red coats and caps and the curtains of the inner fort
our train hands, all which made a very handsome appearance.
The Governor, attended with the Council, the Mayor, the Com¬
mander of the Europe ships and some of the principal freemen,
received him a little way out of the gate of the fort, and after
embracing each other the Governor presented him with a small ball
of amber Greece cas'd with gold and a gold chain to it and thus
conducted him into the fort and carried him up to his lodgings . .
Dinner was in the consultation room, ‘ consisting of about 600 dishes
small and great, 1 and after dinner they were entertained by dancing
girls. 118

Celebrations took place at the accession of Queen Anne, the
accession of George I, the proclamation of peace with France in
1715, the inauguration of the New Charter in 1727, and regularly on
the King’s birthday. In fact any notable event was a good excuse
for a feast, the firing of guns and processions through the streets.
Gn the news of Farruksiyar’s farman granting possession of five
villages round Madras in 1717, two processions went round the town,
one of all the civil authorities, a company of soldiers and ' all the
English musick ’ which toured the fort; and the other led by the
Peddanaik on horseback, and consisting of Talliars and native
music, a company of British soldiers, two trumpeters, the chief
Dubash IX 9 mounted, a palanquin with the farman, six sergeants and
the company’s merchants. A salute of 101 guns was fired for the
King, fifty-one for the Royal family and thirty-one for the Company,
and all the merchants of the town, English, Portuguese, Armenians
and Mohammedans were entertained at dinner. 120 ' The day con¬
cluded with feasting of the soldiers with tubs of Punch, and a bonfire
at night; and the black merchants, to show their joy at the Hon.
Company receiving so much favour from the Moghul, made abun¬
dance of fireworks on the Island.’ 121

One more example will suffice. It is the procession formed at
the inauguration of the New Charter on 17 August 1727. The
procession marched to the Company’s garden in the following order:

Major John Roach on horseback at the head of a Company
of Foot.

Soldiers, with Kettledrum, Trumpet and other music.

The Dancing Girls with the Country Music.

The Pedda Naik on horseback at the head of his Peons.
The Marshall with his staff on horseback.

The Court Attorney on horseback.

The Registrar carrying the old Charter on horseback.

The Sergeants with their maces on horseback.

The old Mayor on the right hand and the new on the left.
The Aldermen two and two, all on horseback.

Six halberdiers.

The Company's chief Peon on horseback with his Peons.
The Sheriff with a White Wand on horseback.

The Chief Gentry in the town on horsd^ack. 122

To what extent were the early settlers absorbed into the main
stream of Indian life ? It seems clear that generally speaking the
early factors kept apart and aloof from Indian life, though they had
developed no contempt for Indian social customs or political power.
They were proud of being what they were, though they had no
prejudice whatever against adopting any Indian fashion or custom
which made life more comfortable or more luxurious. In a word
this Indianization was only superficial, a thing of clothes and food
and not a radical transformation of essential ideas. What they
borrowed from India were the excrescences of Indian customs and
not their essence. Thus they took the zenana from Musulman society
but never became Musulmans; and they adopted various current
Hindu superstitions without ever absorbing any Hindu philosophic
ideas. They adapted Indian words to form numbers of ‘ Hobson-
Jobsons ', many of which have been adopted into the language,
but they never learnt the local vernaculars themselves, conducting
their business in the debased Portuguese current round the coast or
by means of interpreters. The rest of their borrowing was con¬
cerned with the details of life—wearing of banian clothes in their
houses, the eating of food in the Indian manner when away from
their houses , I2 3 the chewing of 'pan' and ' betel >I2 4 and the smoking
of hookahs. The love of processions, fireworks and salutes was only
a common tendency expressed in an Indian form. The Englishman
in the factory period of his life in India, remained at heart very
much what lie was in England. He learned how to deal with
strange people and adapted his life to the climatic and social
conditions, but he remained an Englishman still in his essential
ideas. It was left for the later settlers and soldiers, as a result of
their far greater contact with Indians of all ranks, to become much
more aggressively English on the surface, while at the same time
unconsciously imbibing some characteristically Indian ideas.

misr/ff.

Chapter II

THE TRANSITION PERIOD
1750-85

Between 1750 and 1785 there occurred in India a radical change
in the English life and outlook, a metamorphosis from the secluded
if not always very elegant life of the early factories, to the fevered
cosmopolitanism of later Calcutta, a brilliant if slightly tawdry
imitation of the world of the ' First Gentleman of Europe \ To
explain this change, it is not enough simply to cite the Anglo-French
Wars and the conquest of Bengal, for if the factors had remained
exactly the same these events could not have suddenly changed their
whole outlook on life, and developed them from pettifogging traders
quarrelling over their seats in church and overlooking each other's
derelictions of duty, into imperialist swashbucklers and large scale
extortionists. The fact is, of course, what anyone who describes a
condition of affairs at any given moment, from Macaulay’s descrip¬
tion of England under James II downwards, is liable to forget, that
conditions at that moment were not static at all, and that the people
of the time were very far from being content with them. The flow
of history is like a cinema reel rather than a series of detached
lantern slides, and any description of any given moment is really,
to continue the metaphor, the isolation of one exposure from the
whole series of the film. The necessity of clarity involves the
illusion of permanence. While these slow changes were continually
taking place, however, there intervened a period of much more rapid
development, occupying about twenty-five years, during which the
speed of the film, to continue the metaphor, was greatly accelerated.
This period of rapid development, as distinct from the continuous
slow changes of normal times, commenced both in the case of Madras
and Calcutta with a sudden blow to the Company’s fortunes. In
each case the disaster was followed by a confused period of quick
change when new social forces appeared and intermingled with the
old, haphazard and largely unrestrained by the older customs and
traditions. These two crises also weakened the force of tradition
so as to prevent the old settlers from greatly influencing the new.
So the normal process of change was accentuated by political
circumstance to such an extent that the settlements may in some
ways be said almost to have commenced life anew.

23

3

THE NABOBS

) These two catastrophes were the capture of Madras
in 1746 and of Calcutta by Siraja-daula in 1756. TheA
He a violent break with the past, and ushered in a period of
opposition to the French and of participation in Indian politics.
The second began that period of adventure and cosmopolitanism
which only ended with Cornwallis.

The first result of the French wars was an influx of soldiers,
both Company's and Royal troops. Royal troops were first sent
at the close of the Austrian Succession war, and in addition the
Company itself began to raise regular European regiments of its
own in place of the early sepoy companies, after the loss of Madras
in 1746. The subsequent Carnatic war confirmed both these
developments, and in addition brought the factors into the orbits
both of war and of Indian politics. The war with Dupleix, the
fortune of which depended on the balance of a few hundred
Europeans and the course of which could be changed by such
incidents as the defence of Arcot and the siege of Trichinopoly,
caused military entanglements ; and the alliance with Mohammad
Ali, the Nawab of Arcot, who soon made Madras his virtual capital
from prudential motives, effected an entry into politics. The Seven
Years' War continued the process. It brought an influx of Royal
regiments, a further increase in the Company's army; and the
overthrow of the French power, which was its result, involved the
transfer of the Northern Circars to the Company's management
(previously under French control and used to support the French
General Bussy in Hyderabad) and diplomatic relations with all the
chief Deccan powers—Hyderabad, the Marathas, Mysore and
Travancore. The rise of Mysore under Hyder Ali followed so closely
on the eclipse of the French that Madras had no opportunity, even
had it had the inclination, to slip back again into its old position of a
prosperous but provincial city. It now became the virtual capital
of the Carnatic state, in practice controlled by the Company on
behalf of the Nawab. The power and abilities of Hyder Ali were so
formidable and constituted so serious a menace to Madras, that it
remained a military arsenal rather than a commercial depot until
Hyder's successor, Tipu Sultan, was finally defeated in the fourth
Mysore war in 1798. Then Madras, no longer a military base for
operations in the interior, became the capital of Southern India.
The process was completed by the definite annexation of the
Carnatic by Lord Wellesley in 1801.

In Bengal the period of rapid change began later and ended
sooner. It began abruptly and disastrously with the capture of
Calcutta in 1756, and it developed rapidly with the subsequent
defeat of Siraja at Plassey and the establishment of a military

THE TRANSITION PERIOD

IL

primacy in Bengal. These political changes brought to Beng^
Sn from Madras who had already become accustomed to high
politics and higher finance ; there they found opportunities for
wider and more lucrative corruption than any they had known in
Madras. The pace became accordingly much hotter, and as the
period of cosmopolitanism was shorter, so was its activity also more
intense. The lack of any adequate military opposition made the
Nawabs of Bengal little better than the tax-gatherers and con¬
cession contractors to the Company, and this state of things was
confirmed by the break-up of Mir Kasim’s army in 1763 and by the
defeat of Shuja-ad-daula at Baksar in 1764* Bengal was virtually
annexed when Clive obtained in 1765 from the Moghul Emperor the
grant of the ' Dewanni' or civil administration, but a condition of
power without responsibility remained until Warren Hastings by
standing forth as Dewan’ in 1772, abolished the Deputy Nawabship
to which Clive had entrusted the Dewanni, and undertook the
collection of revenue himself by means of English officials. The
English in Bengal were in a sort of political vacuum ; they had no
very real menace like Hyder Ali in the south and the Marathas in
the Deccan to sober them, and in consequence the period of corrup¬
tion was more unrestrained while it lasted, than ever it was in
Madias . 1 On the other hand, civilians more easily asserted control.
The Bengal counterpart of the imprisonment of Governor Pigot in
x 776, the civil opposition to Clive in Calcutta, was very quickly
suppressed, and never afterwards repeated, and the mutiny of
ofncers in 1766 took place far enough away from Calcutta to prevent
a sudden seizure of power in Calcutta. Civilian administrators
appear with the appointment of the supervisors in 1769, and as
collectors they extended all over Bengal after 1772. Calcutta was
never anything else but a commercial centre and steadily established
its claim to the title of ' City of Palaces \

So the social developments varied in the two cities in accordance
with the differing political conditions. In Madras the period of
• ransition covering the French war led on to the society of late
eighteenth century Madras from about 1765 onwards, and the
settlement remained as much military as commercial in character
own to 1798. It was confined to one city and the military camps
adjacent, and its corruption centred round the court of the Nawab
Iohammad Ali and the Council ; some reform was accomplished by
. °rd Macartney after 1780, but social conditions remained in essence
same until the close of the period. In Bengal on the other
awd, the changes were both more rapid and more frequent; there
^ as rnore than one transition, and more than one crystallization
mt0 a s tahle scrjal system. The first period of transition lasted

19501

Ml NtSTfiy

THE NABOBS

from 1756-65, a period of unbridled corruption and abfis^
'aMled to the first period of social crystallization achieved by Clive
in his second Governorship and reinforced by Warren Hastings.
A second transition was the reformation carried out by Lord
Cornwallis and led to a second social equilibrium with well-marked
features under him and Shore, until finally a third period of change
began with Wellesley which left Calcutta with much the same
arrangement of classes and much the same outlook as it retained
through the nineteenth century.

Parallel to the changes in the European settlements went
changes in the Indian political situation. The Moghul Empire
retained most of its prestige and much of its power down to the sack
of Delhi by Nadir Shah in 1739, and until that time a dominant
personality at the centre might have still preserved the reality of
an empire in Northern India at least. But the lack of a vigorous
Emperor made the strong men at court rivals before that date, and
founders of dynasties afterwards. Hyderabad became virtually
independent in 1726 and was isolated from Delhi by the Maratha
treaty of 1738. Bengal was virtually independent under Ali Verdi
Khan in 1740, Oudh in 1744 ; Gujerat was lost in 1748 ; the Punjab
after the Battle of Panipat in 1761 went to the Sikhs and the
Afghans, and only Delhi remained as a sort of aristocratic city
state. At last, after a last gleam of prosperity under Mirza Najaf
Khan, like the dying flicker of a guttering candle, the imperial power
was finally extinguished by the excesses of Ghulam Kadir Khan in
1788. By 1756, therefore, the Moghul Empire had ceased to be a
political reality. But like the Roman Empire of the fifth century
it retained its hold over the imagination even of those who were
dismembering it, and remained the legal source of all authority
until the Company's supremacy was finally established. Every
fresh usurpation was legalized by the issue of a * farman * from
Delhi, as when Dupleix produced one to uphold his claim for
supremacy in the Deccan against the English, and the Company in
Bengal, after defeating the Emperor Shah Alam in the field, relied
on another formally to legalize its position.

The chief operative facts in the first transitional period were the
break of continuity caused by the early disasters of the French wars,
the influx of professional soldiers (men of mature habits and fixed
ideas before they came to India), the transformation of merchants
into politicians and the mere mathematical increase of numbers.
But besides these external features of the period which reacted on
the outward circumstances of the settlers, there are also internal
elements to reckon with—changes which took place in the mental
attitude of the factors themselves.

THE TRANSITION PERIOD

<§L

^/A number of inhibitions, partly real, partly imaginary, wer^
emoved by the European successes in the Indian wars and politics.
The first was the barrier which limited power and opportunity had
erected against the ambitions of the merchants. The earlier
merchants were no more solid merchants and dutiful agents in their
hearts than the later adventurers, and when opportunity offered,
their suppressed ambitions revealed themselves in the ease with
which they changed their occupations and the frequency with which
stray Englishmen took service with the country princes in the hope
of acquiring a fortune. 2 In fact they were potentially as turbulent
as any of the Benfields or Whitehills of later days ; all they lacked
for their achievements to equal the most skilful of the Bengal
nabobs ' was opportunity. But it must not be assumed that they
were worse than their contemporaries in England ; rather their
natural ambitions for wealth and power found no outlet in the
circumstances of their exile in India and of factory life. Just as
the dissolution of the monasteries and the industrial revolution
gave the acquisitive instinct a hitherto undreamt-of scope and
made it a new danger to mankind, so the expansion of the English
power in India gave free play to the desire for self-expression in
every direction which the earlier factory life had denied.

The second of these inhibitions was a great respect for authority
both in India and England. The exaggerated rejoicings in Calcutta
on the return of Surman from his successful embassy to Farruksiyar
m 1717 show a respect for the imperial authority which was far
greater than the English fear of the Moghul army. 3 For them the
Emperor at Delhi was the source of law and the origin of their legal
rights in India ; they considered him much as medieval Europe
regarded the Holy Roman Emperor, as one who might be cajoled or
wheedled or intimidated, but one whose authority must always be
formally respected. Like the whole of India, they had come to
regard the A, oghul Empire as something indestructible and irremov¬
able, as the incarnation of all authority as well as the materialization
of the Mohammedan supremacy, and so strong was this belief that
they failed to draw the obvious conclusion even from the sack of
Delhi in 1739. 4 So they carefully obtained a sanad for their Bengal
Government while they were defeating the Moghul troops at the
battle of Baksar, and continued to govern in their name right into
the nineteenth century.

But far greater than this was their respect and submission for
the Company at home. A perusal of any of the Court's letters to
Bengal or Madras shows the paternal tone the home authorities
adopted and the detailed control they exercised. The visits of
a Roman Catholic priest to an up-country factor’s w r ife in Bengal

mtStffy.

THE NABOBS

j/avely forbidden ' if he is to remain in our service \5
Dck was commended and given an increase of £20 a year in tHe
le of a manager giving a rise to a junior clerk; 6 there were
recommended and despatched individual books ;7 and it was not
until 1759 that the Council during Clive's governorship ventured to
protest against the bullying attitude of the Directors. 8 The whole
tone is that of a rather overbearing and inquisitorial central office
communicating with its country branches. The settlers for their
part quite accepted the position ; Wellesley's remark about ‘ the
cheesemongers of Leadenhall Street' would have horrified them as
much as it did the later Directors, for they accepted their position
as the paid agents of the cheesemongers. In the early records we
have frequent references to ' our Honourable Masters ' in a tone
which now smacks of servility, but to them seemed obviously right
and natural. In a dispute they decided to cast lots * as our Masters
have bidden us to do in times of disagreement' ;9 as late as 1754
the Council at Madras can write of 9 our Honourable Masters, out of
their indulgent care ' I0 sending annually a ship to Madeira for wine.
They did in actual fact consider themselves as a species of country
managers for a multiple company, and though they may have been
quite ready to become millionaires if opportunity offered, in practice
such ideas were as yet no more than fantastic dreams.

The first external agent of change was the transformation of
factors into soldiers and statesmen. It is true that the factors
required no encouragement to effect such a transformation, but the
actual metamorphosis had a very important effect on the character
of the new settlements. It meant that soldiers and officials brought
commercial minds to their new duties, in which, if they were not
always over-careful of the Company's coffers, they never forgot
their own. Practices like the taking of commissions for clothing and
feeding of companies by captains, 11 which involved no great scandal
in the day of small things, were inevitably magnified indefinitely
until we reach the case of the regiment which on disbandment was
discovered only to have existed on paper. 1 * To the influence of
natural acquisitiveness must be added the attitude of the Company
which refused to increase salaries to a reasonable figure until the
time of Cornwallis, and actually annulled Clive's scheme for augment¬
ing salaries from the profits of the salt and tobacco monopolies. 1 ^
The licence for private trade or. wffiich they continued to rely, and
which before had only meant that the merchant looked after himself
as best he could, now in the new conditions became a licence to
private tyranny and the terrorization of the countryside. The
merchant was now often an official (and the official a merchant)
while the whole English community gained the status of a ruling

THE TRANSITION PERIOD

The merchant had behind him power and not persuasil
in consequence some of the worst exactions were committed
by his ' gomastahs' or commercial agents. The exactions of the
English ‘ gomastahs ' and their refusal to pay the proper river dues,
was one of the principal causes of friction between Mir Kasim and
the Company in 1763, an issue on which Hastings sided with Mir
Kasim until he put himself out of court by his attack on Ellis at
Patna. The eighteenth century was the classic period of placemen
and corruption, and when the special circumstances of the East
India Company are added to the general atmosphere, the period of
corruption in India seems not only intelligible, but almost inevitable.

The coming of the soldiers first began in earnest after 1746 . 1 5
The Company's European army then began its regular existence
with the training of two battalions of Europeans for their service,
and the Royal troops were constantly coming and going during the
prolonged French and Indian wars from 1754 to the end of the
century. These were men independent of commerce, unfettered by
awe of suspicious superiors at home, possessed of a professional
esprit de corps . Honour and fame were their ideals, efficiency, at
any rate to a certain extent, was a principle of life. The old
Company's officer had occupied a definitely inferior position in the
social scheme ; l6 he was as much interested in trade as in his guard

duty ; it was possible to be drunk and incapable on duty without
incurring serious censure, and he could usually secure reinstatement
on a profession of repentance.The difference in quality between
Company’s Europeans and the King's troops continued right up to
the time of Cornwallis, who frequently deplored the wretched quality
of the Company’s Europeans. 18 Further, the soldiers proved by
demonstration what others had only tallied of — the superiority of
European methods of war to the Indian, and the possibility of using
with success Indian troops drilled on European lines . x 9 To the
example of the English troops must be added the further stimulus
of Dupleix's example, first by his defeat of Anwar-addin's troops at
Ambur in 1749, and then by his and de Bussy's policy of alliances
and subsidiary forces in the Deccan.

Next must be noted the effect of increased numbers on the
character of the settlements. In 1740 a Fort St. George list gives
168 as the total official and non-official European population, to
which we may add a Company of European soldiers. 20 This shows
little change from the beginning of the century. 31 After 1746 the
Company raised both European and Indian troops, and the regiments
of both were soon officered by Englishmen. 23 The lower class of
European became, therefore, predominantly military, and its
number was continually augmented by time-expired soldiers who

misr/fy

THE NABOBS

ed to keep punch houses, European shops, or act as coachmen
"settlers. Similarly the influx of officers affected the merchant
and official class. They were not segregated in barracks or in
camps like the privates, and had long periods of leave which they
inevitably spent in the Presidency towns. In 1746 in Fort St.
David there were only 200 European troops of all ranks , 2 3 by 1748
there were 589, 2i * in 1759 at the siege of Madras there were 1,758
troops 2 ^ and in 1769, 2,590. 26 The civilian population, while it
increased, multiplied in nothing like the same proportion. In 1777
the number of non-official Europeans, including women, is given
as 253. 2 7

<SL

In Calcutta the same condition of things is found. In 1756
S. C. Hill's list gives 671 certain and 133 uncertain names of
Europeans in all the Bengal factories, and this included many
Portuguese, French and Dutch names. 28 The total European
garrison was then 200. In 1763 there were 1,118 men and seventy-
two invalids on the rolls and in 1765, 1,598 men . 2 9

By their military employment and their professional outlook
the new soldier element on the one hand helped to drive the settle¬
ment from purely commercial into more imperialistic channels.
Through their influence all the settlers became more race-conscious,
more of an aggressive political group. But as the Company's
officers, like the factors, came out for life or long periods and came
out early, so, on the other hand, they imbibed more of the older
mercantile spirit and Indianized social habits than their numbers
would have seemed to make probable. The early soldiers were
merchants in essence ; the later soldiers were merchants and
contractors without ceasing to be soldiers, just as the later factors
were politicians without ceasing to be merchants. In things
military their influence was purely English ; but in civil life they
conformed to their Anglo-Indian environment. Thus the sepoy
army was rapidly Europeanized in its appearance and treatment as
well as in its discipline ; the old easy-going tolerance of Indian
customs by the early merchants found no place there. The sepoys
were given uniforms in 1759,3° which consisted in 1780 of a red light
infantry jacket, a blue turban with a tassel, a blue sash loosely
wound round the loins, with the end passed underneath and fastened
behind, tight white drawers half-way down the upper leg, sandals,
white cross-belts, firelocks and bayonets. 3 1 In 1767 Indian tomtoms
and trumpets were discontinued as soon as the men could learn the
European beats, 3 2 being replaced by drum and fife bands ; and the
words of command were also English. 33

On the other hand, there are many indications to show that
they had quite adopted the Anglo-Indian attitude to trade. Apart

THE TRANSITION PERIOD

ich profitable duties as the clothing and feeding of companil
fieir captains, 34 it was necessary to lay down in the first military
regulations that no one should hire another to do duty for him, or
keep a public house, or a retail shop, without leave, in which case
he would be discharged on condition of serving in an emergency,
and that no presents should be accepted on pain of dismissal.35
A custom grew up of using soldiers as personal servants, and in 1778
we have a list of twenty-nine European soldiers and sepoys who were
serving high officers and civilians in capacities ranging from groom,
coachman, bagpiper and theatre attendant to huntsman and
cockfeedei\ 3 6

More purely European in their outlook and more corrosive in
their influence upon Anglo-Indian life were the Royal regiments,
who were sent out during the French wars and returned after the
peace. They were not only military, but English military men, and
they arrived too mature to be influenced by existing Anglo-Indian
manners. The first Royal troops to India were sent in 1662 to
Bombay under Sir Abraham Shipman, but the influx did not begin
in earnest until the French wars. In 1748 twelve ' independent
companies ’ of hastily raised troops and eighty artillerymen were
landed in Madras by Boscawen .37 The first complete regiment to
land was the 39th, commanded by Col. Adlercon, and conveyed by
Admiral Watson’s fleet in 1754 to Madras. During the Seven Years’
War several regiments were sent to India. 3 8 After the Treaty of
Paris in 1763 four of them returned but 545 men and twenty-five
sergeants were left behind .39 From 1767-80 there were no Royal
troops in India when the 73rd regiment arrived.* 0 In 1787 four
regiments were specially raised for service in India,* 1 who finally
returned home in 1805 after nearly twenty years’ service.* 2 When
the numbers of the settlement are remembered, it will easily be
understood that the influx of so many mature and opinionated men
was bound to have a marked effect. They inaugurated the con¬
ception of service in India as a temporary vocation undertaken with
a view to retirement in England.

The next new element in Anglo-Indian society was the new
civilian official class. This appeared in 1769 with the appointment
of English ‘supervisors’ in Bengal and extended all over Bengal
after the assumption of the Dewanni in 1772. As collectors though
they increased the official as apart from the purely mercantile
element in the Company's service, yet their social influence was of
an Indianizing rather than a Westernizing character. There were
many reasons for this. The collectors retained the privilege of
private trade until 1787, and it was only then that Cornwallis
separated the Revenue from the Commercial service. Until that

Ml HlSTfiy

THE NABOBS

&

a Company’s servant might indifferently hold commercial
inistrative appointments ; the merchant and the administrator
were interchangeable. Next these officials usually came to India as
writers at the age of fifteen ; with habits and principles unformed
they easily assimilated the customs and traditions of the society
into which they had just entered. Further, the distribution of the
collectors all over Bengal brought them into contact with the local
country gentry, the nawabs and zamindars. In consequence, they
not only failed to increase English social influence, but strengthened
the already existing tendency to Indianize manners.

From these Indian gentry with their wealth and ostentation,
their retainers, their despotic temper and their luxury, they acquired
the tastes and habits which marked the * Nabob * of later eighteenth
century England. Before 1750 the few Company’s servants who
acquired fortunes did so as merchants living in European settle¬
ments. On their return they invested their money in land as any
successful London merchant might have done, and we hear no tales
of extraordinary extravagance and pomp. It was the migration of
the factor to the country districts after Plassey that changed their
outlook from that of merchants desiring to get rich quickly to that
of gentlemen desiring titles and deference, prestige and social
distinction. * Nabobs ’ first appeared in England after Plassey.
They entered Parliament in force at the election of 1768,43 and they
were first publicly exposed by Foote in his play ' The Nabob ’ in
1771.4*1 Rural collectors had not then become at all numerous it is
true, but the process had already begun with the commercial and
political residents who had previously spread over Bengal. The
isolation of men in country stations also helped, perhaps, in the
growth of the cosmopolitan spirit which marked the times of
Hastings. In the ordinary official it produced oriental habits and
establishments, in the more cultured like Shore, Hastings or Forbes
an interest in Persian literature or Hindu mythology .45

One more class of Englishmen appeared at this time, the order
of adventurers. The exemption obtained from river tolls for the
Company’s merchants by Clive from Mir Jafar, and the Bengal
government’s impotence to deal with English agents, opened the
country to ‘ English, French, German and American * adventurers, 4 6
who came in with forged ‘ dustucks ’ or passes, employed
' gomastahs ’ or agents dressed as English sepoys and using the
English flag, and used their privileged position to compel merchants
to buy goods at from 30 to 50 per cent above market price .47 It
was this behaviour that was largely responsible for the war with Mir
Kasim in 1763.4 8 They gave the English name its bad reputation
in Bengal during the sixties, but their career was ended by the

THE TRANSITION PERIOD

rpt^fts of Hastings from 1772-4.49 Henceforward adventurers in the
:rior were confined to indigo planters and hangers-on at local
courts. The government was determined to have ' as few
Europeans as possible dispersed about the country’, and though it
never rid itself of the embarrassment of their presence^ 0 the reign
of terror which they had established never revived.

In the towns another type of adventurer appeared concurrently
with the changing times and the vague talk of boundless riches.
Often highly connected, this class hoped to collect large fortunes
quickly in the unsettled conditions, but their day of opportunity
was also short. As early as 1765 it was passing away. ' The place
[Calcutta]’, wrote Topham to Burrington, f swarms with people,
who are some of them connected with the first People there, and
who are well qualified for such Employments as the gentleman you
mention seems to benefit from, and yet are starving for want of
bread. Ihe Company’s Civil Service,’ he added, 'is the only
certain Track to a Fortune or Preferment, and much more on the
Bengal Establishment than any other. ’ 5 1

In this transition period there is a parallel development of
English and Indian influence, of the royal soldier and the ' nabob
of the cumulative effect of numbers in fostering a class spirit, and
of tne orientalizing effect of contact with Indian society. The
result was the cosmopolitan society of Hastings’ time, 5 2 which lasted
until the next wave of European influence, encouraged by Corn¬
wallis, upset the balance For the moment, however, the two
currents ran side by side.

On the English side began that turning away from India to
Europe which later developments have tended continually to
increase. Ihe Europeanization of the army has already been
noticed, and the same subtle change of outlook is to be found in
other directions as well. From this time onwards, for instance, no
European seems to have been able to appreciate Indian music.
^>ei.nier had found the Imperial Band at Delhi trying at first, but
iad grown to like it, 53 and the early factors, from the frequency wit 4 ?
which the country musick ’ is mentioned in the records, must at
east have tolerated it. They probably enjoyed the songs of the
nautch girls in their entertainments .54 From this time, however,
t ie country musick ' was banished from public functions as it was
iom the army; instead European musicians multiplied and
concerts began to be given. The European's first impression of
ndian music is almost bound to be unfavourable, owing to the
o*eat difference between their respective idioms, and now Europeans
ad no longer to wait for a second impression. So the Frenchman
v ( 1 age found the Nawab of Surat’s band ' remarkable only for its

miSTty

THE NABOBS

8 ^y $5 as Captain Campbell considered it * inelegant, harsh
onant ', 5 6 and the general verdict was summed up by Major
Blakiston when he wrote of Indians: ‘ in fact they have no music
in their souls .'57 The fate of the band presented by Mohammad Ali
to the Madras Government in 1754, which was disbanded in 1757.
is a good illustration. In earlier years bands were regularly provided
for on great occasions by the Company itself. 5 8

Another sign of the times was the changing taste in wine.
Arrack, either alone or in the form of punch, was the most popular
drink of the early century, but now gave way to Madeira and later to
claret and beer. Arrack became a poor man's drink, and it was
perhaps because of this and of its resemblance to arrack that whisky
was considered * no gentleman’s drink ' down to i8io.59

Developments in the settlements' amusements were another
sign of the changing times. As the number of English settlers grew
the means of organizing English amusements grew with the desire
for indulging in them. Dancing was one of the most prominent of
these, either in private houses or ' routs and assemblies ' ; by 1775
it was, according to Shore, who arrived in 1769, one of the chief
amusements along with riding, hunting and shooting. 60 In this it
largely replaced, except among the military, the practice of doing
one's dancing vicariously by engaging troops of dancing girls. 61 The
military adopted both methods to the end of the century. 62 Other
forms of distinctively English amusement also appeared : the
Harmonic Hall was built in Calcutta in I78 o 6 3 and the first theatre
was opened in Hastings' time. The church, which had been
destroyed in the siege of Calcutta, however, was evidently less
essential as it was not rebuilt till 1787. The first newspaper was the •
notorious Hickey’s Journal , suppressed in 1782 by Hastings. 6 *

All these developments were symptomatic of the changing taste
which larger numbers and closer contact with Europe were bringing
about. The settlers were beginning to adopt English rather than
Indian standards of living and amusement; the ideal of making
every English settlement an exact replica, as far as possible, of an
English town was just coming into fashion. Nowhere is this seen
more clearly than in the architecture of the time. There was never
any attempt to adopt the Indian style of a house opening inwards
on a courtyard, which with the resources possessed by the Europeans
of the time, could have been made cool and luxurious enough with
verandahs, fountains and formal gardens. Instead the classical
style was imported bodily, and the verandahs were not even lowered
sufficiently by means of arches to keep out the sun . 6 5 The whole
verandah was laid bare in order to exhibit the full grandeur of an
Ionic portico or piazza, which had then to be filled up by immense

NHMSna,

THE TRANSITION PERIOD

frames. Their gardens tell the same story. The Mogh
with its formal lay-out and its use of ornamental water never
became fashionable, because the English wished their gardens to
be as nearly like their English prototypes of the new landscape style
of Bridgeman and Kent as possible. 66

But this increased European influence was only one side of the
picture. Parallel to it went the influence of the Indian environment,
sometimes elaborating what already existed, sometimes taking new
forms. Foremost among these Indian customs was the European
addiction to the nautch. As soon as enough ladies arrived in India,
to make European dancing practicable, the whole community took
to it with enthusiasm, but they retained their taste for the nautch
as a spectacle. To see a nautch was something like attending the
ballet in Europe, with the difference that the troop always came to
a private house ; in the transition period it was the substitute for
the theatre. The difference between the Indian and English ideas
of pleasure as consisting respectively in repose and action is in
nothing better illustrated. ‘ Villagers,’ says Hunter in his Journal,

' were much surprised to see us dance, saying that it was very
extraordinary that we, who could afford to have dancing girls,
should wish to dance . ’ 6 7 The European taste for a nautch is further
shown by the fact that it became the recognized form of entertain¬
ment for an Indian merchant to provide for his English guests. As
so easily happens in India, it became traditional, and continued long
after the European taste itself had disappeared. 68 ‘ When a black
man has a mind to compliment a European, he treats him to a
nautch/ wrote Mrs. Kindersley in i 754 > 69 and the custom still
» existed at the time of Mrs. Fenton’s visit to Calcutta in 1826.

During the transition period its popularity continued unchecked,
and though some had doubts of its propriety, all acknowledged its
charm. 4 It is their languishing glances, wanton smiles, and
attitudes not quite consistent with decency, which are so much
admired,’ wrote Mrs. Kindersley.? 0 Hart in 1775 speaks of * six
or seven black girls being brought in after dinner ’ when ‘ they sang
and danced well ’,? 1 and in 1778 they were still ‘ much admired by the
European gentlemen ’. 7 2 Their later history may perhaps here be
summarized. In the civil stations they became gradually of less
importance, though in 1794 it was still customary for ladies and
gentlemen to be given a view of the nautch by friends on their
arrival .73 After this time the English taste gradually changed from a
slightly guilty appreciation or naive enjoyment to frank incompre¬
hension, boredom and finally disgust. The chaplain Tennant in 1803
thought little of them, but advised attendance at these nautches, as
a matter of courtesy.?-* Lord Hastings in 1814 was contemptuous ,75

THE NABOBS

B in 1826 Mrs. Fenton described a dancing girl as ' an odious
specimen of Hindustanee beauty \ who ‘ made frightful contortions
of her arms and hands, head and eyes. This was her poetry of
motion. I could not even laugh at it '. 7 6 De Jacquemmont summed
up the matter when he appreciated the nautch, but said it was liked
best by those who had forgotten European musical time .77

In the army enthusiasm for the nautch continued till the end
of the century, perhaps because of the lack of facilities for European
dancing. According to Sir J. D'Oyley ‘ the influx of officers from
1778 led to the best sets going to the cantonments ' until ‘ reason
rode past on the wings of military retrenchment, and the Auditor
General's red ink negatives dissolved the charm \ 7 8 The taste
nevertheless continued, and at the different camping grounds the
officers would be entertained by sets from the neighbouring village
or pagoda .79

Hookah smoking was another Indian custom which increased
at this period. Though hookahs had always been used by some—
in Mr. Charles Bendysh's Inventory of 1675 appears : 4 1 Chamolet
Hoake with a green baise '— yet pipes had been far commoner in
earlier days. 80 In the inventories scattered through the early
Consultation Books there are many entries of pipes, but few of
hookahs. But as soon as the series of inventories opens in 1754
hookahs begin to appear. A hookah was more expensive than a
pipe and required a hookahburdar, and it would therefore naturally
come into fashion with increasing wealth and ostentation. To the
new arrivals it was a luxury, and so, in spite of all their increasingly
English tastes they were devoted to its charms. By 1778 it was
‘ universal ', 8r and Hickey's refusal to smoke was perhaps the first
sign of that insular independence, which, combined with economic
reasons, eventually caused its decline. 82

To the Indian customs which increased their hold at this time
must be added the zenana. This was again an extension of a custom
which new resources had made possible. In the earlier times it had
been limited by the larger number of marriages with Portuguese and
other Christians, and its growth after 1760 was helped by the influx
of officers and factors who considered such marriages beneath them
and established zenanas instead. The small numbers of European
women having made some such development inevitable, it was
natural that it should have taken the line of contemporary Indian
custom. The custom was too strongly rooted to be affected by new
arrivals, and as a result increased; wealth only meant larger
establishments. As long as the institution of the zenana lasted it
was in its turn a powerful Indianizing influence. In 1780 Asiaticus,
speaking of the expenses of the hookah, considered it * absolute

MIN/S7*y

THE TRANSITION PERIOD

>ny compared to the expenses of the seraglio ... for those
rank in the service entitles them to a princely income '. 8 3
Williamson and D'Oyley, both of whose experience covered the last
twenty years of the century, wrote of the zenana as a normal
custom ; the former in his Vade Mecum, dedicated to the Directors,
calculated the monthly expenses which the young recruit might
expect it to cost him. 8 * In this case also an existing Anglo-Indian
custom was developed rather than superseded by the increase of
wealth and numbers.

But perhaps the most characteristic of all these Indian influences
was the ideal of a' nabob'. The earlier merchant made his money by
trade, and if he was fortunate enough to survive returned to England
to settle down as a country gentleman. He had little to do with
nabobs and regarded himself as a merchant until his return, when
he followed the normal course of his successful London brethren.

ut the factor of the transition period, with his connexion with
politics and intercourse with real nawabs, quickly acquired the taste
or being an oriental prince. He became a ‘ nabob ' in ideal, and
commerce was only the method by which he obtained the necessary
^ ealth. Indeed he often gave up trade for contracts because that
promised speedier results . 8 5 So we get a rapid transformation from
t e purely commercial factor of the 'fifties to the merchant turned
soldier or politician in the 'sixties, and finally proclaiming himself
a £ en tleman '. It was a unique feature of Anglo-Indian society,
and one which caused the returned nabobs much of their trouble,
that commerce and trade should be compatible with gentility. In
ngland it raised up a wall of prejudice on the part of the landowning
gentry, and in India it prevented the formation of any strong middle
c ass to which the merchants should naturally have belonged. It
, the separation of Anglo-Indian society into officia ls and
poor Europeans with a great gulf fixed between, leaving the few
^ o were unattached to either by ties of interest or occupation
wou ld have formed the liberal element of the
middle class) in a void place between the two.

The spirit of change and the absence of all precedents were
C a f ac ^ er ^ s ^ c the transition period, and produced an extra-
or mary mixture of magnificence and disorder. Any picture of
, es ^ Y ear s is bound to be confused and blurred by contradictory
etails and it is possible only to give one or two random illustrations.
I x 756 Calcutta spread with great rapidity, and the custom
' f erec ^ n £ garden houses outside the city in the Garden Reach
d cuaset, Barrackpore, etc., as well as of having town houses
a ong the Chowringhee. But there was no supervision ; all building
' vas aL ran dom so that the magnificence of the new houses was often

MINfSr/f,,

THE NABOBS

<SL

ed by their haphazard arrangement and their mean surround¬
ings. Calcutta was more a city of scaffolding than a city of palaces.
The drains were open as late as 1769, 86 and troops had to be kept out
of Calcutta owing to its unhealthiness . 8 7 In the administration as
in the city there was confusion owing to the lack of experienced men,

and to a carelessness which existed even before the violent break of
continuity caused by the capture of Calcutta. In 1756 the Directors
wrote indignantly, 4 The original letter from the Chiefs and others
at Patna and a Leaf tom out of the original Diary of Mr. Surman's
Embassy to the Great Moghul (1717) were picked up in a Publick
Necessary House which the Writers make use of and are now in our
Hand, where w T e are informed many Fragments of Papers of great
Importance have likewise been seen/ 88 Many of the writers had
phenomenal rises, and owing to their ignorance both of the language
and of business, their work fell into the hands of their banians.

4 The business of the Secretary's department/ wrote Clive in his
trenchant way in 1766, 4 was committed to a youth of three years
standing in your service ; the employment of Accomptant is now
discharged by a writer still lower in the list of your servants ; the
important trusts of Military Storekeeper, Naval Storekeeper and
Storekeeper of the Works, were bestowed, when last vacant, upon
Writers ; and a Writer held the post of Paymaster to the Army, at a
period when near twenty lacks of rupees had been deposited for
months together in his hands. Banians became principals in the
several departments ; the affairs of the Company flowed through a
new and unnatural channel, and your most secret concerns were
publicly known in the bazaar / 8 9 Amongst the highest officials the
same laxity prevailed, so that just before the coming of Clive the
Calcutta proceedings recorded six unsuccessful attempts to assemble
the Court of Cutcherry in April and May, together with the various
excuses of the members. These included, in addition to the usual
4 gone to Baraset' or 4 out of town such surprising individual pleas
as that of the man who did not know he was a member, of another
who was 4 busyand finally of the gentleman who 4 said he could
come but came not '. 9 ° Socially there was much the same confusion.
4 In proportion as the inhabitants of this Settlement have increased/
wrote Shore in 1775, ' we are become much less sociable than
formerly. The demon of party and politics has now broken loose
among us, and in the room of public and private confidence, has
planted suspicion, envy and distrust / 9 1

Finally we have an account of an animal fight by Colonel
Champion, which seems more like the after-breakfast entertainments
of the Nawabs of Oudh, and cannot have occurred often in Calcutta
except at this strange transitional period.

MIN isr/ty

y

FIGHT BETWEEN A BUFFALO AND A TIGER

miSTfiy

THE TRANSITION PERIOD

whole tow assembled at the new Fort to see a Fight
gn a Tygar and a Buffaloe, an Elephant and Rhinoceros and
two Camels. A large square place with struts being made, six
buffaloes with their riders were put in and afterwards a Tygar
loose; who did not attempt once to seize one of the Buffaloes ;
one of the Buffaloes ran at him first, after which there was little or
no sport. They then set loose a very large Royal Tygar but he
being hurt in his hind quarters was rendered useless, however the
Animal behaved with noble spirit, and did his utmost. The Buffaloe
by being led on to the beast attacked furiously and would lift and
gorge the Tygar and throw him over his head with the greatest ease.
As there was no opposition it afforded but little sport or pleasure.
The Tygar being at last killed and being late, the Company broke up.
Camels were brought and fought; they seize chiefly each other's
legs, but it affords no diversion. An Elephant which had been
prepared for a Battle ran wild and endeavoured to force the square,
as great numbers of people were about it—seven were killed ; when
he found he could not accomplish his design he then ran through a
Garden Wall, and lifted a roof off a House and had not the Rider
behaved well, he would have brought it to the ground. As the
Rhinocerous could not be moved there was no battle/ 9 2

The first period of consolidation which followed the first period
of transition covered roughly the years 1765-73. It can con¬
veniently be traced in the diary of Colonel Rennell, the first Surveyor-
General of Bengal, a copy of which is amongst the India Office
Records. Rennell was in Madras and Bengal throughout the
transition period, and a gradual change of outlook can be accurately
traced in his pages. In 1762 he wrote from Madras that the
chairman was going home worth £300,000, adding, ' This is certainly
a fine country for a young gentleman to improve a small fortune in/

‘ The inhabitants affect a deal of ostentation in their manner of
living. Few private gentlemen live at less expence than £5-6,000 a
year and those married about £8,ooo-£io,ooo. The Governor lives
at the rate of £20,000 per annum /93

In 1764, on his appointment as Surveyor-General in Bengal,
he hoped to return in a few years with £5,000 or £6,000 and wrote
optimistically that, while he had an allowance of £900 and per-
quisites of £1,000, 1 1 can enjoy my Friends, my Bottle and all the
Necessaries of Life for £40094—Besides when I get acquainted with
the Trade of this part of India I shall make much greater advantages,
as I shall always be able to command a Capital/95 But a year later,
s °on after the advent of Clive, his tone began to change. The
Company's Civil Service was now the only certain road to fortune.
Lure adventurers were already at a discount and these private

§L

4

THE NABOBS

<SL

;ters form perhaps the best evidence of the efficacy of Clive's
second governorship. Things grew worse (from Rennell's point of
view) rather than better. By 1768 he only hoped to retire on £:120
a year ; 9 6 in 1769 he was growing tired of service ;97 and in 1771
he was ' fearing the worst ’ in the shape of government interference,
in which case ‘ twill be high time for us to decamp \ 9 8 He thus
summed up the altered conditions. ' Bengal is surprisingly altered
within a few years. Happy now is he who can pick up a bare
Competency instead of the overgrown Fortunes that were formerly
amassed here. But what even have the Fortunes availed ? Many
of the Proprietors of them are forced to come out again to get more ;
but this I presume to be owing to their dissipated way of living,
for I don't by any means want to quarrel with a large Fortune. '99
So the period of corruption, confusion and groping for prece¬
dents, of adventurers and nabobs, passed imperceptibly Into the
period of later Calcutta and Madras. The transition from factory
to settlement life was complete. Henceforward there is a continuity
in social development, marred by no great changes or sudden
catastrophes. The further transitions were secondary to the one
which we have just considered, they took place within the framework
of a settled society and did not change the society itself. As such
they are more fully dealt with in later chapters but their chief
features may be briefly summarized here. The second transition,
which is marked roughly by the arrival of Cornwallis, is really only
a development of the first. Externally it was marked by further
reform, and internally by a great increase of European ideas and
influence, imported partly by Royal officers, partly by independent
officials like Cornwallis himself and the judges and attorneys of the
High Court, and partly by the increasing number of women in the
settlements. The third transition was a further development and
completion of tendencies already apparent in the second. The way
in which the influx of Europeans in middle life with set ideas
contributed to change the outlook of the Indian settlements, and
their reaction upon those whose outlook they wished to change,
is shown in an illuminating letter of Colonel Pearse in 1779, with
which we will conclude this chapter.

Ever since Europeans came to India until the introduction of
this [Supreme] Court, 100 it was the custom for them to exercise
over their immediate servants the power of inflicting slight
punishments to compel the people they employed to do the
duty they set about; they found it the custom of the country
and necessity and example made them adopt it; no man
ever thought it wrong till the introduction of this Court;

THE TRANSITION PERIOD

Sl

but a set of men, bred up in the prejudices of our Courts were,
in an advanced age, lifted out of the middle of London into
the midst of a set of people who, having conquered a mighty
kingdom and being very few in number, were under the
necessity of adopting many of the manners and customs of
those they had conquered. The clamours raised against the
whole body, for the actions of a few individuals, had been
used to support the party they wanted to partake of those
riches which they saw with envy in the hands of the
Company's servants (sfc). 101

MIN IST#,,

Chapter III

THE LATER SETTLEMENTS

The visitor to- eighteenth century Calcutta was wont to ascend
the Hughli in a very chastened frame of mind. From the time of
leaving England he had been tossed in small and confined quarters
for anything from three months to a year, with few sights of land
and rare stops to lighten the monotony of the voyage. A stop at
Madeira where passengers were expected to find their own quarters
while the ship was taking aboard pipes of the Hon. East India
Company's madeira, a week or tw r o of the Cape in which to complain
of the quality of the Dutch food and the sharp eyes of the
4 meinheers ' for profit, and perhaps one at Dutch Trincomalee in
Ceylon for water — these were the total of his halts. On board ship,
if he possessed influence or a deep enough purse', he probably dined
at the Captain's table, who for the outward voyage at least, with an
eye to the more lucrative homeward trade, was usually civil enough.
The fare was reasonable, with fresh poultry unless a storm washed
the hen coops overboard, fresh mutton and possibly fresh milk ;
but the captain kept his eye on the bottle, signalling the conclusion
of dinner by a solemn corking, and no smoking was allowed. More¬
over, the ladies, destined for the Calcutta marriage market, often
monopolized the largest cabin or 'round house', and their quarrels
and intrigues too often occupied the attention of the rest of the boat.
It was on board ship that the highly respectable Hastings met the
Baroness Imhoff, but there were often tales and allegations far more
serious than an ordinary flirtation and elopement. Sometimes the
ladies' wardrobes, stocked with the latest London fashions destined
to dazzle Calcutta society, vanished in the heat of the disputes in
the round house; one captain was accused of seducing a lady
passenger, and in the subsequent inquiry the doubtful point was
not the fact of the seduction, but w r ho was the seducer ; and Mrs.
Fay has kept a vivid record of the difficulties of constricted but
uncongenial society. For amusement, the traveller had exercise
on the deck, occasional fishing, visiting from ship to ship, and
indoors gaming. 1

As the jaded passengers approached the Coromandel coast,
stories would be told of Hyder and Tipu and their ways, of the
Carnatic invasions of 1768 and 1780 when the Madras garden houses
went up in smoke and a scared settlement had believed that the

43

THE LATER SETTLEMENTS

t£/nor had decamped before the disaster by arrangement wit 1
er, ' having shaken the Pagoda tree/ says one writer feelingly,

‘ so thoroughly that no more has since been found on it/ Stories
were told of the fate of prisoners who fell into the hands of the
Sultans or were handed over by de Suffren, and of the adventures
of casual ships (like Mrs. Fay's) which touched at Mysore ports and
were detained. Tipu Sultan and the Mysoreans were regarded in
something of the same light as the Kaiser and the Prussians in the
late war ; there was the same catalogue of barbarities industriously
circulated, the same feeling of civilization in danger, and, what is
often forgotten to-day, very much the same feeling of respectful
dread. The personal prestige of the two Indian monarchs was
indeed greater, for Hyder was a Bismarck as well as a Moltke, and
Hpu a Hindenburg-Wilhelm. The difference in the English
attitude was that between modern and eighteenth century society ;
there were no cries for common vengeance and shouts of * Hang
Hpu ' ; to the Wellesley brothers they were Erst of all princes and
thus necessarily gentlemen. Too many generals had been outwitted
by Hyder and the Carnatic had been too frequently pillaged by his
lootywallahs ' for them to be regarded, as we are Sometimes
tempted to do to-day, as obscure adventurers who delayed for a
moment the inevitable growth of the British Dominion. Finally,
the passengers' impatience would be fed with descriptions of the
Madras and Calcutta which awaited him—vague stories of untold
wealth and oriental luxury, of wild extravagance and incredible
y ice, of pomp and power, and perhaps less pleasing rumours of
disease and sudden death. ‘ Nabobs ’ had become a household
word in England since the conquest of Bengal; the older travellers
would very likely approach Madras with feelings of strong dis¬
approval not unmixed with apprehension at their reception, the
younger and more numerous cadets of fifteen and upwards, with
repressed exaltation and secret delight at the prospect of ‘ seeing
ical life \ Disgruntled travellers after three months' discomfort
would welcome any relief, and to them Madras would appear as a
promised land indeed.

§L

From Trincomalee the ship crept up the monotonous breaker-
med palm-strewn Coromandel coast, past a string of European
settlements—Dutch Negapatam neatly laid out with squares and
c laracteristic canals, Danish Tranquebar, French Pondicherry, an
°pen town since the last French war, and English Fort St. David—
until finally St. Thomas's Mount, the legendary Glastonbury of
ndiaii Christianity, would come into view, and then the gleaming
louses and offices of Fort St. George. The ship approached the
T1 ple line of breakers and anchored in the open roads. Immediately

THE NABOBS

<SL

Towd of small boats or ' catamarans * put off from the shore, some

bearing agents and merchants to treat with the captain concerning
- ’ ’ * ] T- -

The new-comer
He noted the long

his cargo, but most to take the passengers ashore.'
was immediately impressed with several things,
flowing garments and the mild countenances of the Hindu merchants
on deck, and at first mistook them for women. Soldiers, indeed,
sometimes only discovered their mistake on beginning a flirtation. 3
Then he observed the practical nakedness of the boatmen, and was
surprised to find himself without any feeling of disgust, for the
colour of their skins ,4 says one writer, took the place of a covering,
and next he marvelled at the skill of the boatmen who crossed the
three lines of breakers with scarcely one accident a year .5 On

landing he immediately found himself in a crowd of all nations,
peoples and languages, Europeans and Indians, some come to view
the cargo, more to view the spectacle and perhaps most to seek
their fortune from the securities of the newly arrived. Before he
had time to analyse the cosmopolitanism of the crowd he was beset
with a number of ‘ dubashes ' clamouring for appointment. Every
Englishman was convinced of the knavery of the Madras dubash or
steward and of the Calcutta banian, and every dubash was convinced
of the unlimited wealth, actual or potential, possessed by every
Englishman. The new-comer's next experience, therefore, was a
very uncomf or table quarter of an hour imtil he had adjudicated
between one set of incogniti and another, and had engaged a dubash.
If the visitor was to be a permanent resident of Madras, he would
send his dubash to secure a house complete with servants, palan¬
quins, carriages and horses, while he looked out his letters of
introduction ; if he was merely calling on his way to Calcutta, he
would proceed at once to deliver his letters. A letter of introduction
was the wedding garment of early Anglo-Indian society, a sine qua
non of entry into the polite world ; once presented the adventurer
had a warm and generous welcome, but if he possessed none, or had
lost them on the voyage out, as the Fays nearly did, or found the
recipients departed up-country, as might easily happen, he had no
entry into society, no invitations to public or private breakfasts or
dinners for an indefinite period. Formerly he might have applied
direct to the governor and been entertained by him, but the size of
the settlements now forbade such promiscuous hospitality. The
Anglo-Madrasis were lavish but exclusive. Nor could the wan¬
derers stay at an hotel in the cosmopolitan style of to-day, for no
hotels existed until after the turn of the century. If the new
arrival had an official appointment he might be accommodated in
the far from palatial writers' buildings or sent to the cadets' quarters,
or if an officer he would join his regiment; otherwise he would be

THE LATER SETTLEMENTS

d to one of the taverns which existed in the Black Towi
T^&e were establishments kept by ' Portuguese * or half-caste
Christians, and devoted to the selling of arrack, toddy and punch,
the provision of bad dinners, the encouragement of gaming, the
fleecing of new-comers and the general promotion of squalor. To
adapt Hamilton’s description of the Calcutta Hospital, ‘ many
pagodas went in thereat, but few there were that came out again.*

Here Boatswains, Gunners, Mates and Common Sailors,
Comport with Stewards, Midshipmen and Taylors ;

And self-dubb’d Captains, Bailiffs, Barbers join
And drown reflection in adultrate wine.

The accommodation consisted of one large room in which
eating, drinking, gaming, toadying and sleeping were indifferently
carried on ;7 hangers-on were always in attendance prepared to
assist the staff in obliging the new gentleman at the rate of £1,000 a
year. In addition the taverns acted as rendezvous for the Portuguese
Christians, European soldiers and sailors whose fondness for arrack
and toddy enlivened Madras nights and shortened their lives. In
Calcutta these houses sprang up constantly near the barracks or the
hospital, and were liberally patronized by the patients until the
manager was deported as a * vagabond European * and a nuisance.

The man whose social credentials were in order forthwith
became one of the family of the first gentleman he had called on,
until either he had secured a suitable establishment of his own, or
his boat was due to sail for Calcutta. He would find himself borne
away in a palanquin to his host's ‘ Garden House ' on the Choultry
plain or perhaps as far afield as St. Thomas's Mount.

The house he would find a large roomy mansion. 8 It would
He in the midst of its garden and was usually of one storey only,
built on a ground floor of warehouses ; it would be fronted by an
unposing classical portico and surrounded by ' piazzas ' of classical
pillars supporting the roof without any arches and with windows
protected by Venetian blinds. Verandahs came in with bungalows
and were first used in Bombay where the word was apparently
derived from the Portuguese .9 The roofs were flat, the general
style classical and the whole exterior was finished with chunam, a
plaster compounded of sea shells and lime, which gave a bright white
polish. Madras chunam was the most famous, as it gave a marble-
nke finish, but the Calcutta chunam, though less brilliant, was also
vv bite and elegant. Indeed it was often more pleasing to the eye,
since the Madras merchants were inclined to neglect their houses
m *be l°rt which were only used as offices and warehouses, and

THE NABOBS

<SL

[lowed the chunam to peel off in patches and produce a mottled
and decayed effect. In Calcutta, on the other hand, the town houses
were attached to the offices with the result that both were kept in
proper repair. The effect of the chunam was magnificent, but it
was also blinding, and at the end of the century a light brown plaster
of sand and lime with white chunamed comer-pieces began to be
substituted. 10 The change was made for reasons which are still
upheld by modern medical opinion, and it is the more interesting in
view of the policy of the builders of New Delhi to-day, with their
forests of lamp-posts and seas of whitewash. Already, it is interest¬
ing to notice, the dazzling white has been replaced by a faintly
blue-tinted colour.

Inside the houses had arras floors to keep out the white ants,
open-raftered ceilings which were preferred for cleanliness and
through fear of insects, glass windows with Venetian shutters, and
double doors or curtains in the doorway. 11 There was little furniture
apart from the rich Persian carpets as the householder displayed his
wealth and taste on his table rather than round his walls or in his
drawing-room. Here, attended by a large staff of servants and
indulging in a continuous round of social entertainments, the visitor
would pass his time happily enough. 12 He would rise at sunrise
and ride before breakfast, which was at eight or nine o'clock, after
which his host would depart in his palanquin or carriage, to the fort
if he was a government official, or to his adjoining office if a merchant.
The morning was spent by others in making calls of gallantry and
escorting ladies to the ‘.Europe shops ’, miscellaneous stores which
sold Europe goods brought by the last season’s ships. At two or
three o’clock was dinner, the principal meal of the day. In the early
days it had been at one, but grew slowly later to five or six o’clock,
thus swallowing up tea, until it established itself at half-past seven
or eight . x 3 Supper then disappeared, tea at five o’clock was revived,
and the place of the mid-day meal was taken by tiffin, nominally
' two or three glasses of wine and light curries but often substantial
enough to destroy the appetite for dinner. After dinner the
company retired to rest, rose again at 5 p.m. to take tea and then
to drive or ride, to see and be seen on the St. Thomas's Road, and
then paid formal calls and supped at ten o'clock. For entertainment
there were, after 1785, private and public balls on great occasions
like Christmas Day or the King’s Birthday, lotteries and occasional
theatrical performances; for sport, riding, driving and shooting.
The visitor would never enter Black Town where lived the Indian
population, and a number of Armenians, Portuguese and European
merchants and sailors, and would only go to the fort on official
business. He would frequent the esplanade in a palanquin, carriage

THE LATER SETTLEMENTS

Ahorseback—but never on foot. On his way perhaps he would
pass the old * Nawab Walajah ', Mahommad Ali, Nawab of
Arcot, sitting aged and dignified, in white muslin robes in a
European carriage on his way to his mansion, the Chepauk Palace.
There he would probably meet a band of European creditors who
would be turned away empty with the customary courteous assur¬
ances that something would undoubtedly very soon turn up. 1 -*
Mahommad Ali’s debt, the origin of which dated from the old
Carnatic wars, and the growth of which was not unconnected with
rumoured douceurs by successive governors until Macartney broke
the tradition, had long been a public question in Madras. It was
eventually funded and finally taken over by the Government.
The Nawab himself was tall and dignified, of a light colour and
a pleasing countenance ; he was courteous and hospitable to
Europeans, and was popular and respected in Madras. 16 There can
have been few princes so noble in appearance and so disappointing
in action, so rich in promises and so poor in performance. His
whole policy was comprehended in the formal ending of Persian
diplomatic letters— ‘ What can I say more ? ' ; government by
deputy was his cardinal political principle, and complaisance his
paramount virtue. He maintained an agent in London to plead
his cause and another in Madras to correspond with the Governor,
and his palace and service long remained a refuge for dismissed
officials, a promised land for adventurers and a cave of Adullam for
the discontented. 1 ? He had been deeply implicated in the Pigot
plot of 1776, and in most of the shady financial transactions before
and after that time, and his life was a continual round of petitions,
protestations and remonstrances to the Council, and of private
arrangements with its individual members ; yet in spite of, or perhaps
because of, this, he remained popular with the English till the end,
and at his death received appreciative notices from the youthful
Madras press. 18 To some he appealed by his dignity and as an
interesting historical survival, to others he was a useful person in the
political game as the pathetic victim of English rapacity and
ai?ibition , I 9 to others again he was a source of profit, but what really
endeared him to the English was something else—his dignity, his
grand manners and his generosity, even though at his creditors'
expense, which all invested him with the one thing needful in their
e yes the character of a gentleman.

^ With the rest of Madras, the Armenians, the Eurasians, and the
1 ortuguese, the visitor would have little to do. Polite society
hardly knew of their existence. Of Indians, except as servants,
he saw nothing. In this \tfay time would pass pleasantly enough
until his ship was ready to sail for Calcutta.

THE NABOBS

The approach to Calcutta was very different from that to
Madras. When still hardly within sight of land the ship cast
anchor at Diamond Harbour and waited for a pilot, glad not to
have struck one of the sandbanks which surround the mouth of the
Hughli. With pilot on board the ship proceeded to Fulta, where
passengers were transferred to budgerows, long, heavy oar-driven
boats which took them up to Calcutta. Unless some friend had
dispatched his private budgerow down river, the journey was apt
to be uncomfortable as well as monotonous, for the public boats paid
little attention to comfort and were often crowded. They passed
between low banks lined with trees with no variation but a few
villages to enliven the scene, tigers roared and jackals screamed at
night, while mosquitoes buzzed their high-pitched rasping drone on
the steamy air of the boat. The result to minds filled with vague
ideas of the City of Palaces and the wealth and magnificence of
Bengal was first keen disappointment and then indignation. But
on nearing Calcutta the scene changed and its effect, had all the force
of contrast and the unexpected. As the boat entered the Garden
Reach the former desolation gave way to prosperity ; large houses
lined the banks. Colonel Watson's derelict docks were passed, until
Calcutta, a mass of white buildings lining the right-hand bank of
the river, came into view. The first impression was commonly even
more favourable than that of Madras; Calcutta was already
frequently called one of the finest cities not only in Asia but in
Europe and the world. 20

On landing the same proceeding was largely followed as in
Madras. Dubashes and servants thronged the river steps at which
the traveller landed ; 31 each man felt for his letters of introduction
and proceeded at once to visit the nearest friend in order to
secure a shelter for the night. The unfortunate without them
proceeded as before to a Portuguese tavern or punch house.
The old hand returned from leave probably escaped all this
by being met by a friend's budgerow at Fulta, and would very
likely find his old banian (the Bengal dubash or steward) waiting
to greet him.

Once settled he would live much the same life as at Madras,
but with certain marked local differences. To begin with the
arrangement of the town varied. The White and Black towns were
not kept apart geographically, though they remained socially
distinct as in Madras, but the one grew round the other. In old
Calcutta the fort had been the core round which the principal
merchants, some Indian and Armenian as well as European, lived,
and beyond which again grew out the native city. After the capture
of Calcutta in 1757 the English merchants began more and more to

W'Nfsr^

on

THE GRIFFIN

[face p. 48

MiNisr^

THE LATER SETTLEMENTS

mts ide the city altogether, and the garden house craze began ,
river downwards along Garden Reach and upwards towards
Barrackpore was lined with English country houses; Danish
Serampore and even French Chandernagore became residential
suburbs. Indeed officials were so apt to seek repose and inspiration
there that an order was passed forbidding government servants
from leaving the city without permission. 22 When the fort was
rebuilt, after the recapture, no houses were allowed within, unlike
Madras, where houses existed but were only used as offices and not
inhabited by the English. Within were only * godowns * for stores,
and the government buildings. The imposing Government House
of Wellesley, Writers* Buildings, the new church built in 1786 and the
general offices, grew up near the fort as the central official and
business core of the city. In ‘ Black Town * as in Madras, also
resided besides Indians, Armenians, Portuguese, Eurasians, and the
poorer class of Europeans. The Calcutta houses were in the same
grand style and of the same large dimensions as those of Madras,
the town houses lining the esplanade along the Chowringhee Road
being commonly of two storeys, the lower used as store rooms and
the upper approached by a stone staircase. 23 It was only at the end
of the century that the coolness of ground floor rooms was dis¬
covered . 2 4 In the country the houses had usually a ground floor
only, and were arranged on the usual modern plan—a lofty central
hall surrounded by lower rooms descending in tiers to the verandahs.
But they were not yet called bungalows, a name which was then
specially applied to temporary one toreyed thatched buildings
niade of ‘ kacha * or sun-dried bricks . 2 5 These first became popular
in the provinces with the growth of civil stations and military
cantonments, where by their combined comfort and cheapness they
suited the purse and the taste of the migrant soldier. In 1810 the
word was still one to be italicized in a book of travel, although it was
then beginning to usurp the old name of 1 Garden House \ 26 Around
the houses were verandahs, as in Madras, still usually called piazzas,
and in front were classical colonnades. The English Calcutta houses
°f the later eighteenth century presented an interesting mixture of
English and Indian features, of obstinate adherence to customs and
attempts at adaptation to the climate. The classical style, of
course, admitted easily of transplantation, being in England itself
an ex otic, and one has to admit that despite much mixture a sense
of dignity and some fine general effects like those of the Governor-
General's house and other Calcutta public buildings were attained.
lt was at any rate better than that of the Public Works Depart¬
ment and the missionary Gothic of the early, or the insincere
s kientalism of the later, nineteenth century.

§L

5 ;

THE NABOBS

7 But the lofty classical piazzas with their pillars rising to the
whole height of the house, airy and shady as they were at mid-day,
let in the sun's rays too easily in the early afternoon. ‘ More air and
less light' is a maxim of tropical architecture, and as a result there
occurred a very interesting series of changes and experiments in the
last years of the century. To remedy the glare caused 1 ^ the
height of the pillars, Venetian blinds were introduced and placed
over the windows. 2 ? In the new bungalows the verandahs were
lowered and the shade obtained in this way. Folding doors came in
as being more effective against the dust. Glass had been in common
use by the English since the mid-century. The great feature of the
period was, however, the discovery of new appliances for reducing
the heat. Tatties, made of fine strips of bamboos threaded together,
were hung in the great inter-columnal spaces; kus-kus, a thick
matting material emitting a peculiar smell when wetted with water,
was applied to doors of both houses and palanquins, and the art of
' central cooling ' a whole house by means of it and a breeze through
one open door began to be practised. Another discovery was the
swinging punkah, said to have been invented by an Eurasian clerk
who, exasperated by the heat in his office in Fort William, tied his
desk to the roof, attached a string to it and thrust it into his
astonished servant’s hands with the command to pull. 28 The
earliest mention of its use is by Hickey in 1785 , 2 9 and it spread later
to Madras and Bombay. The Church, true to its cautious tradition,
adopted them for the Calcutta church only in 1801 on the recom¬
mendation of Lord Wellesley. 3 °

With all these adaptations, however, the English clung obstin¬
ately to English habits, and tended to do so more as the size of the
settlements increased. Though they used comparatively little
furniture in their houses, they never dispensed, even in their earliest
days, with tables and chairs. They never adopted the system of
inner courtyards and only slowly realized that the ground floor was
cooler than the fust storey. As soon as cooling apparatus like
tatties and punkahs improved, they began to lower the ceilings
and reduce the windows, which by 1800 distinguished the old houses
from the new and made the former much sought after.

Each house lay in its own gardens, which were the pride and
delight of all Anglo-Indians. Here again nationalism asserted
itself ; the English idea of a garden was not a fresco of ornamental
water and playing fountains and shady pavilions like the Moghul,
a Dutch garden in marble, but one of well-kept lawns and laden
fruit trees, as in ' England’s green and pleasant land ’. 3 1 So they
spent much toil and time in trying to keep lawns green during the hot-
weather, and in trying to grow grapes in the sandy soil of Madras.

Ml Nisr/ff,

THE LATER SETTLEMENTS

5i

meners, or ‘ mollies *, were usually Hindus, whose skill in
Ration compelled admiration, but whose knowledge of horti¬
culture was limited. The Chinese gardeners, whose patience and
knowledge filled up the gaps in the mollies , attainments, were
esteemed the best. In the gardening art the English were little
influenced by the Moghuls whose gardens they hardly saw until they
were in decay, but from the Dutch in their East Indian stations
and at Chinsura they both borrowed new ideas and brought many
seeds. 3 2

The Madras Dialogues in 1750 gave the following vegetables
as grown in Madras — 1 Cucumbers, Country Beans, Peases, Colewort,
Cabbage, Corriander, Lettice, Mint, Radish, Garlick, Melon, Leeks
and Chitterlings '.33 Williamson mentions—‘ Cabbages, Cauli-
Flowers, Lettices, Celery, Carrots, Turnips, Pees, Cucumbers,
French Beans, Radishes and Potatoes as being acclimatized, and
Love Apples, Egg Plants, Gourds, Calavans, Yams and Sweet
Potatoes * as being used. Fie also mentions the following fruits—
Guavas, Peaches, Nectarines, Grapes, Apples [but not Pears], Pine
Apples, Mangoes, Oranges, Citron Limes, Pomegranates, Byres,
Commingahs and Curruidahs ’.34

Near and behind the house would be the servants' quarters and
the stables ; poultry and possibly turkeys (very difficult to rear in
the damp Bengal climate) were kept, and the really select mansions
would be completed by a piggery, where pigs were both carefully
bred and fattened.

The new-comer, having secured a house through his banian,
would now leave his host to commence his establishment. On his
arrival he would find a complete, and, as it would seem to him, very
extensive staff of servants already installed by his steward. His
expostulations would only lead to endless explanations as to why
the sweeper could not be allowed to make the bed, the bearer would
refuse to clean the boots or the clerk to dust his papers, why one
man Was required exclusively to fill his hookah, another to cool the
wyie, and a third to wait at table. Physical force might cut short
. e ex planations, but it never cut down the number of servants ;
2n the last resort the servants had a strange power of taking joint
action, and had their own ideas of the strike and the boycott.

Faced with this involved and subtle hierarchy, made doubly
th SCUre ^ ** le ingenuity and as it seemed to nearly all Englishmen,
Q deceit of the banian, the new arrival soon gave up the effort to
an erstand and to control in bewilderment and despair. Henee-
ort h the banian was supreme, and provided he managed with
reasonable prudence, was in a fair way to making the fortune that
lb ma ster dreamed about. The banian, a Bengali Hindu of the

Commercial class and often a Brahmin, was the chief of the estat

THE NABOBS

ment. His importance lay in his control of the whole financial side
of the establishment, which gave him great power over the servants
by means of his control of the monthly wages, and over his master
by means of the loans which most new arrivals raised on the security

of their future prospects. Often the banians took no regular salary,

being content with the control of the total turnover and the com¬
mission of a half anna to the rupee on all payments. Yet the
English detested them as they did no other class of Indian. That
characteristic of a mercantile nation, a dislike of being over-reached
was very evident in later Calcutta. With his steward speaking
fluently his own Bengali English, full of the most plausible and
elaborate explanations of the most obscure business, whose sweet
reasonableness increased in proportion to the doubtfulness of the
transaction, with the expenses rising steadily in excess of his income,
in spite of the most earnest efforts of the steward, with loans and
their interest steadily mounting and due to the same most obliging
and sympathetic steward, the average Englishman soon acquired a
settled conviction of the superhuman cunning and skill of the
banians.35 This belief became part of the creed of all Anglo-Indians
and the banians were looked on with a reverential awe, which was
as far in excess of the real facts as the average continental opinion
of the skill and subtletj' of English diplomacy.

After the banian came the darogah or gomastah. 3 6 He was
the general superintendent of works ; like the banian he took no
wages but received a commission on all his transactions. The new
arrival would certainly make the acquaintance of the munshi, or
interpreter, who was employed both for teaching and translating
purposes. Of the more purely domestic staff the most magnificent
were the outdoor palanquin bearers. These were headed by the
jemmadar ; he was often an old and trusted servant, who walked
beside the palanquin, and was sometimes admitted into the con¬
fidence of his master. The palanquin bearers were from four to six
in number and were preceded by * soontah-burdars ’ bearing silver
batons about thirty inches long, with the upper end carved to
represent bludgeons .37 If, however, it could be afforded a' chobdar '
was substituted who carried a silver pole four and a half feet $
long. 3 8 At night the retinue was increased by ‘ mossaulchees * or
link boys .39 Inside the house the head servant was the khansamah.
The cook was the ‘ babachy ' 4 ° and was usually a Mohammedan.
At table there was the ' kitmatgarwho stood behind his
master's chair at dinner; and did it sometimes so success¬
fully that dinner parties were almost suffocated for want of air !
Another essential servant was the 4 hookah burdar \ who kept

THE LATER SETTLEMENTS 53

•light in his master's hookah after dinner, and accompanied
master to all his entertainments. In his office worked his clerk
or ‘ kranny V 1 usually a Eurasian, and there the master daily
interviewed his cash keeper and business manager, the ‘ sarkar 1
who corresponded to the Madras dubash. His small wage was
liberally augmented by the ‘ dustoorie ' of half an anna to the rupee
which he charged on everything. For the menial office work there
was the ‘ duftaree ', 4 2 for messages, then as now a large part of
Anglo-Indian business, there were ‘ hirkarrahs' and ‘ piadas' or
peons \ The garden was in the charge of the molly and the
various offices of groom (syce), grass cutter (gauskot), horse breaker
(chaubuckasswar), dog-keeper (dooreah), camel-driver (surwan),
water-carrier (bheesty), door-keeper (durwan) and watchman
(chokydar) were all performed by different men. Besides these,
there were a number of occasional servants attached to houses for
particular duties. They were the darzi (tailor), the dhobi (washer¬
man), the hajaam (barber ).43 The sweeper as now was the ‘ mater \
If the settler possessed a boat, as was usual, he would also employ a
f ttianjy' or steersman, a 1 goleeah * or bowman, and a number of
dandys * or rowers. Women servants were the * ayahs ' or ladies'
maids, who were usually Eurasian, and ‘ dhyes '. Finally there were
frequently slave boys 44 and women who acted as pages and ladies'
maids. They often spoke English and were often given their
freedom but that they were frequently ill-treated is evidenced by
f he number of advertisements describing and advertising for missing
s * ave # boys. The Company traded in slaves until 1764 and did not
Prohibit their export by proclamation until 1789.45 European
servants were not numerous or successful in Bengal. They were
e mployed chiefly as postillions, coachmen, butlers and stewards, but
Uere very expensive since they needed a house and servants of their
ewn and they often saved money and then set up in some business
without warning. An English butler had the additional dis¬
advantage of understanding the conversation at the dinner table,
vhich gave him in Bengal society endless opportunities for mischief-
akmg.46 European women were not much better ; it was
c mnplained of them that they always deserted to get married, some
^ Ven a t Madras on their first arrival ashore. Ladies were advised
0 from England an ayah wishing to return to India .47

A day of the Bengal Anglo-Indian is thus described in

Macintosh's Travels.

About the hour of seven in the morning, his durwan
(doorkeeper) opens the gate and the viranda (gallon’) is free
!o his circars, peons (footmen), hurcarrahs (messengers 01

miST/fy

THE NABOBS

spies), chubdars (a kind of constable), houccaburdarkSJL
consumahs (stewards and butlers), writers and solicitors.
The head bearer and jemmadar enter the hall and his bed¬
room at eight o'clock. A lady quits his side and is conducted
by a private staircase, either to her own apartment, or out
of the yard. The moment the master throws his legs out of
bed, the whole force is waiting to rush into his room, each
making three salaams, by bending the body and head very
low, and touching the forehead with the inside of the fingers
and the floor with the back part. He condescends, perhaps,
to nod or cast an eye towards the solicitors of his favour and
protection. In about half an hour after undoing and taking
off his long drawers, a clean shirt, breeches, stockings, and
slippers are put upon his body, thighs, legs and feet, without
any greater exertion on his own part than if he was a statue.
The barber enters, shaves him, cuts his nails, and cleans his
ears. The chillumjee and ewer are brought by a servant
whose duty it is, who pours water upon his hands and face,
and presents a towel. The superior then walks in state to
his breakfasting parlour in his waistcoat; is seated; the
consumah makes and pours out his tea, and presents him with
a plate of bread or toast. The hair-dresser comes behind,
and begins his operation, while the houccaburdar softly
slips the upper end of the snake or tube of the hucca into
his hand ;< 8 while the hair-dresser is doing his duty, the
gentleman is eating, sipping and smoking by turns. By and
by his banian presents himself with humble salaams and
advances somewhat more forward than the other attendants.
If any of the solicitors are of eminence, they are honoured
with chairs. These ceremonies are continued perhaps till
io o'clock ; when attended by his cavalcade, he is conducted
to his palanquin, and preceded by eight to twelve chubdars,
harcarrahs and peons, with the insignia of their professions
and their livery distinguished by the colour of their turbans
and cumurbands (a long muslin belt wrapt round the waist)
they move off at a quick amble ; the set of bearers, consisting
of eight generally, relieve each other with alertness and
without incommoding their master. If he has visits to make,
his peons lead and direct the bearers ; and if business renders
his presence only necessary, he shows himself, and pursues
his other engagements until two o'clock when he and his
company sit down perfectly at ease in point of dress and
address, to a good dinner, each attended by his own servant.
And the moment the glasses are introduced regardless of the

miST/fy

THE LATER SETTLEMENTS

55

/ A. /

/company of ladies, the houccaburdats enter, each with a
houcca, and presents the tube to his master, watching behind
and blowing the fire the whole time. As it is expected that
they shall return to supper, at 4 o’clock they begin to with¬
draw without ceremony, and step into their'palanquins ; so
that in a few minutes, the man is left to go into his bedroom,
when he is instantly undressed to his shirt, and his long
drawers put on ; and he lies down in his bed, where he sleeps
till about 7 or 8 o clock, then the former ceremony is repeated
and clean linen of every kind as in the morning is adminis¬
tered ; his houccaburdar presents the tube to his hand, he
is placed at the tea table, and his hair-dresser performs his
duty as before. After tea he puts on a handsome coat, and
pays visits of ceremony to the ladies ; returns a little before
10 o clock ; supper being served at 10. The company keep
together till between 12 and 1 in the morning, preserving
great sobriety and decency ; and when they depart our hero
is conducted to his bedroom, where he finds a female com¬
panion to amuse him until the hour of 7 or 8 the next
morning. With no greater exertions than these do the
Company's servants amass the most splendid fortunes .49

,§L

dip 1 h fi* fe ° f the y° un 8 Company's servant is illustrated by
y Charles Metcalfe on his arrival in Calcutta in i8oi.5°

the

1801

Tues.

6 Jar>. Went with Plowdcn to see Miss Baillie at Barlow’s
Keceived an answer from Crommelin. Dined at home.

7 Ja £ T^ Ven i m th £ lowden to Brooke's. Saw Golding. Dined
at Thornhill's. Got a Dhobce.

9 Ja ®i ‘a A 116 T r T? ing ' Was introduced to

r . Mured Clarke and General Baynard. Dined with the

T °J eri f or ' GencraI who talked much about Eton Went to
Lady Anstruther's bail. °

10 y ™ np(1 S nnH Ping m °ming. Got a cocked hat (20 rupees).

JJined and passed the evening at Dr. Dick's. ' F

12 ""/an 1 •cf”' „ CaUe f °" Mr ' Bazett - Dined with them.

* Din .H S nt°i! mg ab ° ut m the morning. Went to the levee.
Dined at home and passed the evening at Colvin's.

jw”' Dined at College. Went to the Governor’s ball.

i s Jan ^ ^ lircd Clarke’s. At Dick’s in the evening.

5 tin c„n“ ed at Mr ' Graham’s. Went to Brooke's ball. Sat up
su nnse at a second supper.

’ not ^ J u f ker ' s - . Wen t to bed very much fatigued,
17 T having slept the previous night.

Sunday ^18 College. Sat at Higginson's. Had a Moonshee.

iq Tan tv Dmed at home - Had a Moonshee.

miner! T' rr ‘ lsscd m y Moonshee, finding him of no use. Deter-
thp P M,i, v aCh ? ysc ' f - Went on board the ’ Skelton Castle’,
and thV * 1 r^ 110 / aud London taken from the French ;

ountess of Sutherland a very large .ship, in

5

THE NABOBS

company with Plowden, Impey, Hamilton and Chester,
at home. Went to Lady Anstruther’s.

20 Jan. Dined at Dick’s.

21 Jan. Breakfasted at Bristow’s. Wrote Journal. Dined at

Bristow's.

22 Jan. Tiffed at Hamilton's. Dined at Plowden’s.

23 Jan. Answered my uncle Monson's letter. Ditto Richardson.

Dined at home. Went to the Governor's ball.

Monday, 26 Jan. Dined at Barlow’s. Great A's rout.

27 Jan. Dined at Bazett's.

28 Jan. Dined at College. Spent the evening at Hamilton’s.

29 Jan. Dined at Brooke's.

30 Jan. Dined at Butler’s. Ball at Brooke’s.

31 Jan. Tiffed at Law’s.

Mrs. Fay gives an equally interesting account from the lady's
point of view.

The dinner hour as I mentioned before is two and it is
customary to sit a long while at table ; particularly during
the cold season ; for people here are mighty fond of grills and
stews, which they season themselves and generally make very
hot. The Burdwan stew takes a deal of time ; it is composed
of everything at table, fish, flesh and fowl ; somewhat like
the Spanish 011 a Podrida. Many suppose that unless pre¬
pared in a silver saucepan it cannot be good ; on this point
I must not presume to an opinion, being satisfied with plain
food ; and never eating any of those incentives to luxurious
indulgence.

During dinner a good deal of wine is drunk, but a very
little after the cloth is removed; except in Bachelors' parties^ 1
as they are called ; for the custom of reposing, if not of
sleeping after dinner is so general that the streets of Calcutta
are from four to five in the afternoon almost as empty of
Europeans as if it were midnight. Next come the evening
airings to the Course, everyone goes though sure of being
half suffocated with dust. On returning from thence, tea is
served, and universally drunk here, even during the extreme
heats. After tea, either cards or/music fill up the space, till
ten, when supper is announced. Five card loo is the usual
game and they play a rupee a fish limited to ten. This will
strike you as being enormously high but it is thought nothing
of here.

Tredille and Whist are most in fashion but ladies seldom
join the latter; for though the stakes are moderate, bets
frequently run high among the gentlemen which renders
those anxious who sit down for amusement, lest others should
lose by their blunders.

THE LATER SETTLEMENTS

Formal visits are paid in the evening ; they are generally
very short, as perhaps each lady has a dozen to make and a
party waiting for her at home besides. Gentlemen also call
to offer their respects and if asked to put down their hat, it is
considered as an invitation to supper. Many a hat have I
seen vainly dangling in its owner’s hand for half an hour,
who at last has been compelled to withdraw without
any one’s offering to relieve him from the burden. 5 2

This was the fashionable life of the settlement but it was not
the whole life. For small though the settlement was it was yet
divided into a number of classes which tended to grow sharper in
definition as time went on. The eccentricities of Colonel Fierie-
Phlaime, the tall stories of Major Corker, the customs of Flassipore,
the gaucheries of the half-caste ambitious of social recognition, and
the vulgarities of the boxwallah, so dear to the nineteenth century
Anglo-Indian satirist, were only just emerging into their developed
form. But though the nature of the distinctions have changed, the
fact of distinction was as obvious then as ever it is now ; the change
was more one of division by hierarchy and position than division by
occupation. Thus the sharp distinctions between trade and govern¬
ment service which still leads to such subtle social distinctions as
♦-hat between retailer and wholesaler, did not then exist, because
mitil the time of Cornwallis every official was a trader. In fact the
commercial was the more popular service as being the most lucrative.
Clive made much money on a commission for provisioning his
company ,53 Rennell weighed the possibility of a fortune through
rade as one of the prospects for his padre brother. Indeed, officials
. Palmer could go into trade for good and remain acceptable in
society, 54 - the successful merchant was equally tolerated. Even
ic Eurasians could find highly placed friends if they were sufficiently
^ fiuent .55 Nevertheless, the society was already sundered by gulfs
ee P enough to make it a very fair imitation of the Hindu caste
system which all its members affected to despise. The first broad
r stmetion was between the official and military classes ; the first
Raided the second as foolhardy wine-bibbers, the soldier the officials
q s industrious quill-drivers, office recluses who had only pride to
str’ Cr then' lack of all touch with reality. The army was the
longhold of a vigorous Philistinism ; in the civil sendee existed
dhds* eVei h C0U ^ * ounc * culture. Within the army itself was a
°f vn° . ween Company’s and Royal officers, which was a source
i n t 0 1 g r rievance to the Company’s officers until they were merged
a ttem 10 * nc ^ an arm y after the mutiny.^ 6 A further division was
pi-cd between officers in Indian and European regiments, but

misr^

THE NABOBS

^ was rigorously suppressed from motives of prudence.?? Sj
mg generally there was a broad division between the soldier who
thought the civilian was losing what his sword had won and the
civilian who felt sure that the blundering hand of the soldier would
shatter all the intricate and laborious webs of his diplomacy. Both
were socially approximately equal, and so the jealousy was acute.
In the Presidency towns the officers lived in much the same style as
the civilians but in the mofussil cantonments they developed a social
life of their own which centred round the regiment and developed all
the characteristics of the public school spirit long before Dr. Arnold.3 s
Next to the soldiers and civilians came the professionals—the
lawyers, doctors, engineers and chaplains. They formed the middle
of the settlement, but it was a middle class too small to develop
ideals and habits of its own. So their tastes and outlook and their
style of life were simply reduced copies of the officials. Amongst
them, however, was found much of the culture which existed. Only
the lawyers can perhaps strictly be said to compose this middle class,
since the doctors and engineers were mostly Company’s officers with
military rank, who rose regularly in the military hierarchy. The life
of the more prosperous and profligate lawyer is illustrated by
William Hickey, that of the less successful and less professional by

Mr. Fay. . .

So far the colour of this society was aristocratic (in position
though not of course in birth) and the great ambition of a man was
to gain admittance into the round of breakfasts and dinner parties,
concerts, balls and routs which made up the fashionable life. But
instead of the thriving independent commercial life of London, ,
owning the real wealth of the country, occasionally throwing up
great merchants who bought lands and titles and so passed into the \
caste of gentlemen, but in the main noticing little and caiing less I
for the life of the fashionable, there was in Bengal only a small class
of European shopkeepers, who were reinforced at the end of the J
century by a few large commercial houses.

These possessed neither the bulk of the wealth nor the inde- I
pendent spirit of the settlement. So when the officials ceased to be
great gulf rapidly opened and became fixed between the
official and the ' box-wallah ’ which is so prominent a feature of j
nineteenth century Anglo-Indian literature.- 1 Instead oi the
commercialism of the merchant balancing the jingoism of the j
gentleman, to produce a policy practical as well as spirited, fruitful
of wealth as well as of glory, the opposite process to that of Holland .
took place; the gentry were not exiled to their estates by the ,
merchants, but the merchants were confined to their shops by the
officials. The strength of a middle class is the union of commercial ,

THE LATER SETTLEMENTS

5

ofessional interests but in India they were kept rigidly apart.
% process was not complete till the turn of the century, but from
the time of Wellesley, with his contempt for the ' cheesemongers of
Leadenhall Street \ it continued without a check. To Anglo-India
since then pride and glory, power and prestige have always been
more important than conciliation and understanding, co-operation
and compromise. This is why imperialistic viceroys have tended
to be popular amongst Europeans in India and liberal viceroys
unpopular.

The ideals of the later settlements were becoming increasingly
aristocratic, and even those who were excluded from polite society
by a wall of class prejudice accepted the same standards and
imitated the fashions as far as they could. But apart from the
despised commercial class there was a much larger class of Europeans
whom writers as a rule conveniently forget. They were classed at
the time as * Low Europeans ', or the more desperate of them as
European Vagabonds ’, they existed in considerable numbers, and
they clearly caused the Government considerable embarrassment,
both by prejudicing Indian opinion against Europeans by their
lives, and by harassing the Government by their misdemeanours.
They consisted of time-expired soldiers turned tavern-keepers, of
small shopkeepers, of European servants who had set up on their
own, of sailors and craftsmen brought to Calcutta by trade and the
prospect of rapid fortunes, and even sometimes of convicts whom the
Australian colonies tried to dispose of in India. 60 They were closely
connected with another world, the Eurasians or Anglo-Indian
community, and indeed they often inter-married with them and
swelled their numbers. Inevitably many of them fell out of employ¬
ment, when they entered the class of ‘ European Vagabond * and
caused trouble by their brawls with and oppression of Indian coolies.

hey were responsible for much of the ill-repute in which Europeans
as a whole were held by Indians, though in this respect some held
e r *ch to be primarily responsible. 61 The Bengal villagers
)' e y^med Carey at Debarta because he was unlike other Europeans
f V pn Worse tigers ' 62 ; according to Dubois the decline
? Kristian missions in the eighteenth century 4 must be imputed
P a g re &t degree to the immoral and irregular conduct of the
mropeans in every part of the country ’ ; 6 3 an Indian could remark
f chaplain, ' Christian religion! Devil religion! Christian
a n? muc h do wrong, much beat, much abuse others' ; 64

We e [ C -i ant cou ^ sa Y *° Swartz: ' You astonish me, for from what
aily observe and experience we cannot but think them
Europeans] with

experience we cannot
very few exceptions, to be

self-interested,

ment, proud, full of illiberal contempt and prejudice against

THE NABOBS

Hindus, and even against their own religion, especially the-
''iiigher classes \ 6 5 Finally there is the retort of a girl pupil of a
Hindu dancing master when told by Swartz that no wicked and
unholy person could possibly enter the kingdom of Heaven—' Alas
sir, in that case hardly any European will ever enter it \ 66

The misdemeanours of the vagabond class occupy twenty-five
volumes in the India Office records 6 7 They consist chiefly of
brawling, drunkenness and total contempt of law and authority,
frequently commencing with initial debts, though some of them are
of a far graver character. The authorities were alive to the
scandal of their conduct, but were handicapped in dealing with
them by their lack of power over the Company's own servants. For
many years the worst punishment was deportation to England, and
it was not till 1799 that a punch-house-keeper named William Smith
who barricaded himself in on being ordered home and shot a sepoy,
was executed for murder. In consequence of this leniency and the
frequent conflict of jurisdictions a perusal of the records surprises
most by the frequent pardons and not infrequent total evasion of
justice.

As early as 1767 Clive noted the vagabonds which infested both
Calcutta and Madras, and recommended them for deportation. 68
But the evil did not abate ; in 1789, S. Price, the Marine Paymaster,
wrote to the Secretary of the Governor-General that English seamen
arrived at Calcutta in foreign ships soon became unemployable and
died in the hospital of drink. 6 ? He suggested a guardship in the
Huglili to take men off to other merchant ships. Cornwallis ordered
strolling Europeans to be confined in the fort without rigorous
imprisonment. But in 1792, Middleton, the magistrate at Dacca
was again asking that ‘ some measure be adopted to prevent these
low Europeans traversing the country in the manner they now do,
by which means they get into disputes with the inhabitants of
villages and the consequences which sometimes ensue generally
originate from their own bad conduct \ 7 ° Two examples will show
something of the conditions. In 1789 Michael Macnamara complained
of being thrown overboard from a budgerow. On inquiry he was
found to be ‘ a worthless character and drunken vagrant ’ who lived
on his wits and maltreated boatmen. The boatmen were prosecuted
but Macnamara was so insolent to the magistrate of Dacca that he
was sent down to Calcutta with the already quoted recommendation. 7 1
The case of Tobias Henry Wagner well illustrates the scope for an
adventurer at that time. First a trader at Dacca, he had then an
indigo factory where he oppressed the ryots. Then he tried to
obtain Rs. 12,000 from the minor Rajah of Cooch Behar on the plea
of furthering his interests in Calcutta. He was ordered to be

THE LATER SETTLEMENTS

_. 'ehended, but remained at large till 1801, when Colonel Obie,
the Danish Governor of Serampore, reported his arrival as an
emissary on his way to Calcutta to complain of injustice on behalf
of the Rajah of Cooch Behar. His second attempt had evidently
been more successful, for he had received Rs. 10,000 as a douceur
for the Supreme Council. In 1802 he was taken at Chinsura, where¬
upon he produced papers to prove the sanction of a former Com¬
missioner of Cooch Behar for exacting ferry, opium and liquor duties
and holding lands in farm, all of which was against regulations. He
was, however, still said to be negotiating with the Bengal Govern¬
ment through an attorney in Calcutta and in the circumstances was
allowed to remain there. 7 2 In 1800 the Government was much
exercised by the arrival of twenty-three ex-convicts from Australia,
and one convict who swam out to the ship after it had sailed, and
lived concealed for nine days, his only subsistence being water
obtained by dipping his handkerchief in a water cask. The convict
was placed in irons in Fort William, and the ex-convicts were sent
home to England ; the Council protested very energetically both to
the Company and to the Governor of New South Wales. Their
protest provides an interesting foretaste of the White Australia policy
from another point of view ; London objected because they ‘ feared
colonization", but Calcutta because of the inconvenience and
loss of prestige involved in letting loose such men on the
country .73

One more community made up the hierarchy of European
society. 1 his was the miscellaneous Eurasian community of mixed
f escent, variously known as creoles, mustees, Portuguese, Anglo-
siatics, East-Indians, Indo-Britons, but usually simply as half-
castes. The Eurasian community 74 had its origin in the coming of
the Portuguese, who intermarried freely with the people to form the
Goanese race of modern times on the west coast, and the Portuguese
communities of Madras and Bengal. Unions, regular and irregular,
were ah but universal. * The inhabitants of Goa,’ said Mandelslo
ln ^38, ‘ are either Castizes, that is Portuguese, born of father and
mother Portuguese, or Mestizos, that is born of a Portuguese father
and Indian mother. The Mestizos are distinguished from the others
Z j lr colour > which inclines towards the Olive, but those of the
wh’ £ enera ^ on 3X0 black as the inhabitants of the country;

ic a happens also in the fourth generation of the Castizes, though
mere were no mixture among them /75

In the eighteenth century the work of missionaries and increased
contact with the growing English settlements recruited them from
e ran s of pariah. Christians who wished to raise their status in
lopasses,’ said the Sieur Luillier in 1702, 'were Indian boys

mtstftf.

THE NABOBS

,§L

ought up and clothed in the French fashion, and instructed in
Catholic faith by missionaries ’ ;7 6 and the Danish missionaries did
the same.77 To wear a hat, boots and European dress, to be a
Christian and to speak some European dialect, but usually the
debased Portuguese of the settlements, passed a man off as a
Eurasian, and conversely an Indian who became a Christian tended
to be reckoned as a Eurasian forthwith. This was partly because
it had not yet fully been grasped by the popular Hindu mind that
an Indian could be a Christian, and partly because the prestige of
the Europeans made the claim of relationship, however distant, a
severe temptation to the intelligent and ambitious pariah, as it has
continued to be almost to the present time. In 1790 the name
Topass was still given to Portuguese and Indians who wore a hat
and European dress. 7 8 * Any man of colour, however dark, who
wears a hat, passes for a descendant of the companions of the
renowned Vasco da Gama/ wrote Major Blakiston.79

From the opening of the eighteenth century onwards, but
specially during the second half, their numbers were further
increased by the French and English. There was no colour prejudice
among the French. Dupleix himself married a creole of Chander-
nagore, and in 1790 there were said to be only two French families
in Pondicherry of pure blood, of whom the sons of one had married
women of the country. 80 By the end of the period this new type
of Eurasian had so grown in number that the Abb& Dubois in his
classification of the class wrote that ' the Portuguese ' consisted of
the illegitimate offspring of Europeans, the descendants of low-caste
Hindus, and a ‘ few ' descendants of the Portuguese. 81

After the early days of the settlement when mixed marriages
often took place with ‘ Mustees ' and sometimes with others, the
original unions were nearly always irregular, except for a few
exceptional cases like those of Skinner and Hearsay who manned
Mussulman or Rajput ladies of good family. These illicit unions
can be divided, however, into those contracted by European
soldiers during and after the French wars and those of the
officers and officials. The former were with the lowest classes and
were often only temporary in character, as the soldier moved from
place to place. If a soldier married, it was usually with a Christian
Eurasian girl. The children of these temporary attachments lived
with their pariah or prostitute mothers until the age of fourteen,
when many of them disappeared into the interior and others drifted
into the bazaars. 82

In Trichinopoly in 1780 there were sixty-four boys under
fourteen, of whom only fourteen had entered Swartz's school, and
only ten over fourteen were left . 8 3 In 1784 the Report of the Society

THE LATER SETTLEMENTS

fkAhc Promotion of Christian Knowledge estimated that 7!
urasians were annually bom in Madras and the Coromandel
coast. 8 * With these conditions it is not surprising that they
were said to combine the bad qualities of both races, and that,
according to Carey, the Portuguese Roman Catholics should be
‘ universally despised by people of all ranks and descriptions \ 8 5
The situation was summed up by Dubois with his usual lucidity
when he admitted the charge, but attributed it, not to any inherent
rottenness of character but to a bad environment, bad examples,
and neglected education. 86

Very different from this were the surroundings and upbringing
of the children of officers or wealthy Anglo-Indian officials. Their
mothers, to begin with, were often permanent members of the
household, presiding over a zenana, or perhaps, as in Hickey's case,
having a separate establishment on the banks of the Hughli, where
she joined her consort in entertaining his week-end guests. As the
unions were permanent the children were often treated as members
of the family and carefully educated. Many, especially if of a light
colour, were sent for education to England, where it was said at one
time that one boy in ten in the schools was coloured. 8 ?

Until 1800 there was no public opinion against these irregular
unions. Palmer could write quite casually to Hastings of his
‘ natural children ’ and their progress. 4 All/ he remarks, ‘ are good
and sensible and have been well educated in England/ 88 The
attitude to colour was illustrated in another letter about the natural
children of Julius, whose case Palmer had undertaken. Two,
almost as fair as English children', were to go to England;
but the third was ‘ too dark to escape detection ’, and, although the
strongest, was therefore to be educated in Bengal.^

Some remained in England and drifted on to the London streets
* * n swarms ', 9 ° but the majority returned. It was here that the
tragedy began, for they had received the education of gentlemen and
had to live the life of clerks. In many cases their fathers left India
and so deprived them of all influence, and from 1792 they were
officially debarred from employment in government service. 9 1
Deprived of parental support, and carefully unfitted by their
education for the life they were compelled to lead, it is hardly
surprising that many of them were unable to adjust their lives to
their circumstances, and developed that mixture of arrogance and
emptiness, of extravagance and poverty, that decayed nobleman
outlook which has been traditionally associated with them.

For those who did not go to England, however, there were in
both Calcutta and Madras orphan asylums of long standing. For
the children of officers a special institution was founded in 1782 and

THE NABOBS

pported by deductions from pay on a graduated scale. 9 ~ But he r
again there was difficulty in finding work for the boys and even more
for the girls on leaving. Officers* children were apprenticed to
business firms, soldiers* sons were sent to the regiments as drummers
and fifers .93 Many girls married European soldiers 94 and thus
reduced the earlier promiscuity ; some became ladies* maids, some
the wives of officers, but many their mistresses owing to the growing
English prejudice against mixed marriages .95

Thus the young Eurasian, while his father remained in India,
often became a fashionable man about town. * Many a young
Bond St. dandy,* wrote the author of Fifteen Years in India ,

4 struts about with inconceivable self-satisfaction, and youthful
British, Portuguese and French half-castes, with tawny face and
neck stiffened almost to suffocation, jump from the sublime to the
ridiculous in attempts at imitation.* 9 6 But when his father sailed for
England, leaving his mother with a pension and no education, and
himself with education and no pension, the bright day was done,
the shades of the prison house began to close around him, and there
was no other resource but to join the society of ‘ krannies ’ or
subordinate clerks, or to live upon his wits. So all over India, side
by side with the English settlements and stations, sprang up small
societies of Eurasians (or Indo-Britons as they were known after
1827 ), 97 between whom and the gentlemen ‘ there was almost as
great a distance as between Brahmin and Pariah*. 9 8 The 'gentle¬
men * consisted of the members of the covenanted service and two
or three merchants, ‘ kranny society * of clerks, assistants to
merchants, conductors (storekeepers), sergeants (who probably had
Eurasian wives) and shopkeepers .99 None had any prospects except
the merchants* assistants.

In these circumstances the Eurasians could hardly be expected
to be contented ; their discontent gave European society a rational
ground for a disapproval to which their growing racialism already
prompted them. In this disapproval is a note of fear very different
from the attitude of the French at Pondicherry. While some dis¬
approved of the sending of Eurasians to England for education,
because it unfitted them for their Indian life; 100 others feared that
the unchecked increase of their numbers might eventually prove a
danger to the government. Lord Valentia was in favour of
‘ obliging every father of half-caste children to send them to Europe,
prohibiting their return in any capacity whatsoever \ 101 This would
both remove the numerical danger and * the expense that would then
attend upon children would certainly operate as ,a check to the
extension of zenanas which are now but too common among the
Europeans *. 102

miST/fy

THE LATER SETTLEMENTS

inuring this latter period, the ceremonial life of Calcutta as well
as the daily social routine underwent considerable social change.
In the time of Warren Hastings, ' the good old days ' of later Anglo-
Indians when money was plentiful and time was cheap, large
entertainments were common. There were grand official dinners on
the King's Birthday , I0 3 on Christmas Day, 104 and on other special
occasions, with a ball for the ladies ; public breakfasts and dinners
were given by the Governor-General and by the membeis of the
Council (‘ Burra Sahibs ’) I0 5 in turn once a week, which strangers and
anyone who had received a general invitation might attend, and in
addition there were private dances and concerts in Hastings Street
and Alipore. 106 Hastings himself moved simply amid all this display

and wore nothing more ostentatious than a plain green coat, 10 / out he
knew how to assume state on occasion. Then though by nature
uncommonly shy and reserved \

Halhi par howdah, ghore par zin,

Jaldi bahar jata Sahib Warren Hastin .

Lord Cornwallis brought a change. Along with such customs
as private solicitation of offices 108 went public breakfasts as a
preparation for levies. Open levies were substituted . 10 9 Cornwallis
also frowned on public dancing, and discontinued after 1786 the
customary Christmas dinner, ball and supper. 110 But ceremonial in
the Government House was also much reduced, though Cornwallis
reappointed Hastings' old staff. 111 The settlement had never
expected 4 so humble and affable a great man \ 112 But it is not
surprising that ‘ his mode of life' prevented his becoming ‘ popular ' Ix 3
in the eyes of the majority. However, he did not entirely stop
ceremonial as his account of the celebration of the King's recovery
shows, when the illuminations were destroyed by rain, which did not
prevent, however, ‘ some of the gentlemen who stayed late being
nearly extinguished by the claret.' 114 Sir John Shore continued the
Cornwallis regime with, if possible, even greater simplicity , 11 3 but
with the coming of Lord Wellesley began a period of magnificence
which has been continued with occasional breaks and reactions
since. Under his inspiration arose the new Government House at
Calcutta, where dazzling entertainments were held as soon as it was
completed. 116 The * stupidity and ill-bred familiarity * of Calcutta
society, encouraged by Shore and Cornwallis, jarred on him, and
caused him ‘ to expel all approaches to familiarity with a degree of
vigour amounting to severity \ n 7 Illuminations at one ball alone
cost £3*248, and everything else was in proportion. The century
which had come in with the sometimes riotous dining of obscure
factors at a common table closed with an oriental adaptation of
Vauxhall and the Brighton pavilion.

Ml UlST/fy

Chapter IV

BOMBAY

In the eighteenth century Bombay was the Cinderella of the
English settlements in India, the unhealthiest, the poorest, and the
most despised. The first burst of prosperity under Gerald Aungier
had been succeeded by Keigwin’s revolt in 1683-4, the ambitious
Moghul War of Sir John Child, the siege of Bombay by the Sidi,
and the final purchase of peace from Aurangzeb by the dismissal of
Child. The period of depression which ensued lasted until well into
the eighteenth century, and the tradition of poverty and dullness
survived its close. Unlike the other settlements there were few
dramatic incidents to give a glamour to its history, and except for
the defeat of the pirate Angria, they were usually disasters like the
Sidi's invasion or the Convention of Wadgaun in 1779. Bombay
had a reputation for parochialism, and its inhabitants fulfilled one
test of smallness by being usually ashamed of their city and by
wishing themselves in any other part of the Company's dominions.
Throughout the century Bombay remained remote and unenvied
by the rest of India, and it even allowed Calcutta to usurp its obvious
position as the Gateway of the East.

The first reason for this is to be found in the political situation.
Bombay was from the time of its acquisition surrounded by powerful
neighbours who jealously watched its growth. The Moghul port of
Surat remained an important rival far on into the eighteenth century/
although in 1709 Bombay finally became the headquarters of the
new United Company. It was not until 1736 that the Parsi ship¬
builder Lowji Lassaramjee Wadia could be persuaded to take charge
of the infant Bombay dockyard, 1 and not until 1759 that the
English obtained control of the whole city of Surat. Even in 1773
ourat could be reckoned to contain anything from 400,000 inhabi¬
tants and upwards, and to be at any rate more populous than either
Paris or London, 2 while Bombay had still not much more than
ioo^ocx-* Indeed, since the English virtually controlled both cities,
it seems that it was only the gradual silting up of the Swally river
on which Surat stood that finally turned the commercial scale in
favour ot Bombay.* On the south, the Portuguese regretted their
cession of Bombay almost as soon as they had made it, and by their
hold of Basscin and Salsette did much to diminish its value as a port
and to throttle its infant trade. When the Portuguese were ejected

66

BOMBAY

i^gn/Bassein in 1739,5 it was by the Marathas and not by tW
‘ ^lish, and the city remained as cramped and overshadowed as
before. The Marathas themselves were too strong to be defied
with impunity, and trade was further hampered b}' the hostility of
the Mohammedan Sidi, and the depredations of the Angrias from
their pirate stronghold of Gheria till their final destruction in 1756. 6
Time and fortune both favoured Bombay, but it was not until after
the third Maratha war in 1782 that free communication was really
established with the mainland^ and not until 1803 that the Maratha
power was finally broken. The amazement which Colonel Goddard's
march across India from Calcutta to Surat in 1779 created well
illustrates the isolation of Bombay right up to the end of the
century ; an overland post to Madras via Hyderabad was only
established in 1788, 8 and the first Maratha wars were largely
precipitated by the delays occasioned in the sending of despatches
from Bombay to Calcutta by sea. When these facts are remembered
it is not surprising to find that though the first Parsi had arrived in
Bombay by 1675,9 the shipbuilder Lowji did not remove from Surat
to Bombay until 1736, and that it was 1803 before a traveller could
make the very modern observation that Bombay was almost entirely
owned by the Parsis. 10

The second cause of the early obscurity of Bombay was its
climate, which gave rise to the proverb * Two monsoons are the life
of a man \ IX This was partly due to the naturally damp and enervat¬
ing air, and partly to the marshes on the landward side of the island
which were, of course, malarial swamps. Their reclamation was not
attempted before 1721, although swamps were vaguely considered
responsible for * pestilential vapours ’ which induced the prevalent
fevers. Partly it was also due to the obstinate English adherence
to their own food and drink, though they well knew both the dangers
of their diet and the virtues of temperance in the tropics. Niebuhr
thus described their attitude : * It is true that many Englishmen
die here very suddenly, but in my opinion the fault is chiefly their
own : they eat much succulent food, particularly beef and pork,
which the ancient legislators have forbidden for good reason, to the
Indians ; they drink very strong Portugal wines, at the hottest
time of day : in addition they wear as in Europe tight-fitting clothes,
which are useless in these countries, since they are much more
sensitive to the heat than the Indians with their long and flowing
garments.’ 12

But Calcutta was equally troubled with swainps, and all
English merchants had equally unhealthy habits. What gave
Bombay its notoriety was its toddy trees, which by their thickness
shut out the sea breezes, and the peculiar method of manuring them

THE NABOBS

/th decaying ' buckshaw ;i 3 fish which ‘ impregnated the neig
bouring wells ' and caused a ' most unsavoury smell \ ‘ And in the

Mornings/ adds Hamilton, 4 there is generally seen a thick Fog
among those Trees, that affects both the Brains and Lungs of
Europeans, and breeds Consumptions, Fevers and Fluxes/ 1 * All the
early travellers agreed on the ill-effect of these methods, but the
Council did not want to diminish the shade by cutting down the
trees, while the Company derived a revenue of Rs. 25 per thousand
coconuts. 1 * Presented with the painful dilemma, of either losing
their coconut revenue or of providing a constant succession of
recruits, the Court corresponded for many years with the Bombay
Council about it. In 1709 the Council^ tried the burying of the fish
in earth/ 6 but the next year they resorted to more drastic measures,
and reported with pride the beneficial effects of the prohibition of
buckshaw altogether, though there were more Europeans on the
island 'than for sixteen years past \ x 7 This policy, however, led
to a decline of the coconut crop, which in 1722 only yielded an
average of eighteen each from 20,000 trees. The Council therefore
experimented with dried or ‘ coot' fish which were placed round the
trees in small quantities and well covered with earth. After two
months they asserted that there was ‘ no manner of smell V 8 and
the next year they wrote that the experiment was still successful . *9
But how far the success of the experiment was medical as well as
financial is open to doubt, for in 1750 Dr. Grose was still calling
Bombay ‘ the burying ground of the English ' and attributing its
reputation to the manuring of the trees with small fish . 20 In fair¬
ness, however, we must add that this is the latest reference to the
practice we have. Apart from the fevers and fluxes which these
conditions naturally gave rise to, other common diseases were
cholera, scurvy, 4 barbiers ’ or 4 berbers ’—a kind of paralysis—and
small-pox, while gout, the stone, and tetters or worms are also
mentioned/ 1 New-comers were specially liable to fevers, fluxes and
prickly heat/ 2 In the second half of the century Bombay was
notable for liver complaints, ' which are more frequent and
more fatal here than in any other part of India \*3 English
diet and particularly drink, were largely responsible for most of
these ,* at the very beginning of the period Ovington reported
that fevers were especially common after 4 a strong debauch \*4
and at its close we hear of hundreds dying from intemperance,
particularly soldiers on account of the cheapness of arrack and
country spirits/*

A third reason for the unpopularity of Bombay was its demorali¬
zation at the beginning of the century. From the time of Gerald
Aungier a series of disasters almost depopulated the island, and left

BOMBAY

<8L

survivors without hope or public spirit for nearly a generation
until the coming of the vigorous Charles Boone ; 26 and the tradition
thus created lingered on right through the century. That Aungier’s
regime came to be regarded as a golden age is itself the best proof
of the subsequent decline and the evidence amply confirms the
tradition. Keigwin’s rebellion in 1683-4 was the first great shock,
and Child’s Moghul war was the second : at its close the island had
lost its trade, its reputation, and most of its inhabitants, Indian and
European. The population which had grown from about 10,000
in 1660 to an estimated 40,000 or 60,000 in 1678 , 2 7 had shrunk to
16,000 in 1716 ; 28 and not until 1744 was it rather optimistically
estimated at 70,000. Among the Europeans the depopulation was
equally great ; 2 9 of seven or eight hundred in Bombay before the
Moghul war Hamilton says that not sixty survived, 3 ° and Governor
Boone writes in 1718 that of 600 men which the island required there
were then only 120 available. 3 1 But instead of endeavouring to
repair their disasters, the survivors quarrelled and intrigued against
each other and made as much for themselves as possible while yet
there was time. Matters were complicated by the rivalry of the New
and Old Companies, the old President at Surat, Sir John Gayer,
refusing to recognize the authority of the new Governor of Bombay,
Sir Nicholas Waite. Sir John Gayer was arrested and confined for
many years at Surat, but in 1708 Sir Nicholas Waite was in his turn
arrested by his own Council. From the papers and depositions
dealing with his arrest he appears to have been a distinctly difficult
man to work with. When asked the reason of a discrepancy in the
accounts Sir Nicholas ‘ rose in a passion and protested that he would
not concern himself, or transact any more business with them, than
what was absolutely necessary ’— namely the ordering of the pay¬
ment of the monthly accounts— locked up the Consultation room
and conducted all business himself from his lodgings. 3 2 John
Symonds deposed that before leaving Bombay for a trading voyage,
Sir Nicholas thus addressed him : * Don’t you know ’tis the custom
of this place to be false, and to cut one another's throats ; perhaps
you may take me for your enemy, but egad I am not, and whoever
tells you so is not your friend — I toll you there is Aislabie 33 (for that
was his manner of speaking never to mention any person with
respect) will cut your throat for a groat, and mine too if it was in
his pow r er, he 's as false as the Devil, and the only instigation [sic]
of my confining you, and there’s your friend Goodshaw he sets up
for a wit, and Hammer he calls me the old knight . . .’34 On his
return Sir Nicholas * fell in such a passion, swearing and calling me a
damn’d impudent rascal, and swwe by God he knew nothing of my
going to the southward ’.35 He declared that there was a conspiracy

WNISTfiy

THE NABOBS

§L

^against him, and withdrew from all pubjic business until his intr _
iigeance provoked the very movement he feared. The councillors
themselves were not very much better ; Jeremiah Bonnell was
suspended in 1701 by his fellow-members Morse and Callow, John
Lock was suspended for striking Sir Nicholas and refusing to
apologize^ 6 and Morse later explained his absence from Council on
the ground that ‘ his intellect was disordered by liquor ’.

Besides a rather more than average turbulence, in early
Bombay there was rather more than average corruption. The
confidential letters of Governor Boone and the factors of Bombay to
Woolley, the secretary of the Court of Directors, reveal a society
which with its charges and counter-charges and its universal
suspicion must have been in a continual effervescence of scandal
and gossip. This is Mr. Boone’s private opinion of Bombay.

It has been the custom of this settlement, contrary to
what I have known in others. That the Purser, Master
Mariner, Steward and Master of Attendance buy up the
necessary stores their employ requires and conscientiously
spare them to the Company at 50 per cent advance, if I am
not much deceived. The breaches are in a very bad con¬
dition, I will do my utmost to get them finished, but he that
undertook them deserves hanging more justly than a
common thief ; If Mr. Strutt37 had been the good servant he
pretends to he should have opposed the presenting him with
Rs. 2,000 to which he now acknowledges no pretension. . . .
Here is a great want of regulation in the settlement, in
Madras and Bengal such enormities would have been taken
notice of, but were I to do all this at once they would load me
with curses and backbitings. The Second is Bookkeeper but
they allow his assistant £100 per annum. The Chief at
Mahim had J% on all duties, this I have ventured to take off.
The Paymaster has had certain perquisites which I shall
reduce. Everyone in Council allowed a House, Pallaqueen
fellows, and the keeping of a Horse, this swells our expenses
prodigiously besides several other tilings which my time would
not permit me to inquire thoroughly into. 3 8

A few months later Boone discovered a credit of Rs. 435,149
which his predecessor Strutt had given to the broker Vanwallidas
in order that he might take it away again and so gain the credit of
economizing.39 One of the responsible parties disclaimed all respon¬
sibility and the other pleaded ignorance. Governor Boone, however,
was a man of real energy and determination who rendered good
service, but even he did not hesitate to rate his own woik at quite

miST/fy

BOMBAY

7 *

tvalue. On the discovery of the next lot of frauds, he confesses
to Woolley that he 'expects encouragement’ and asks for a 20 per
cent reward. He adds the postscript ' you know the country custom
is one fourth part ’. 4 ° The rest of the letters are nearly all concerned
with applications for more lucrative posts, better pay or modified
conditions and with reflections on the other correspondents ; they
are all written by most devoted servants of the Company who have
long suffered the greatest hardships in uncomplaining silence, and
they are not infrequently reinforced by a * patch of Chints \

' beteelas * or ' two Moche stones 7 for Mrs. Woolley ' as a small
acknowledgment of your favour \ From the frequency of these
postscripts one surmises that she must have strongly approved of her
husband's large Indian correspondence.

Besides all this there are hints of darker tilings. Ovington’s
horror at the pitch to which ' all vicious enormities’ have grown
may be suspected of .professionalism but it found confirmation in
both private letters and public records/* 1 Strutt spoke significantly
of ' arrack to keep the soldiers from the pariah houses’ and more
sinister vices were not unknown.^* 2

These conditions could not have been very attractive in
themselves, but when to them we add the fact that commercially
Bombay did not pay, and that politically it was overshadowed by
powerful neighbours, it is hardly surprising to meet with a chorus
of depreciation from writers through the century. Boone summed
up the general feeling of the early settlers when he wrote, ‘ I cannot
find terms to express the misery of this island, here are great
complaints ’.43 Twenty years later Bombay was still a 'narrow
barren island ’ ;44 at the end of the century it was still a ' losing
concern ’,45 and Governor Duncan 'would never have gone there had
he known the state it was in \ 4 6 Bombay owed its existence to its
harbour, and its continued maintenance to its dockyard, which alone
induced the Company to suffer its annual loss on the settlement.
The Parsi shipbuilder rather than the English merchant was the
true maker of Bombay.

But the uniqueness of Bombay life did not lie merely in its
wars with its neighbours or in the squalor of its early conditions.
Even after its recovery from the gloom of its early years, its isolation
from the other settlements, its comparative poverty and its closer
connexion with the mercantile, as distinct from the princely class
of Indians, gave it a distinctiveness and an individuality which it
has never quite lost even to-day. The isolation and comparative
poverty remained throughout the century; the chance fact of its
cession by Portugal and the consequent independence of any Indian
state, while it rendered its existence precarious and its growth

THE NABOBS

<SL

icult, saved Bomba}?- from the sublime chicanery of a Nawab of
the Carnatic or the gilded decadence of Lucknow. On the other
hand, the tradition of the Surat factor}?-, where the English long
dealt as equals with Hindu, Mahommedan and Parsi merchants,
gave them a more cosmopolitan outlook than in the other two
Presidencies, and provided a solid basis for social intercourse and
mutual co-operation. The difficulty with which the prosperity of
Bombay was built up was very different from the early wealth of the
other settlements and their sudden expansion into military centres.
In Madras and Calcutta Indian merchants were glad to reside as a
favour, and the Government would therefore make their own terms,
but in Bombay they had first to be attracted from the larger city
of Surat which was also nearer the great trade routes. Indian
merchants could not be attracted by a trade which already existed,
they had to be attracted in order to create trade. So Bombay
developed a spirit different from the other two Presidencies, a cosmo¬
politan spirit of co-operation based on mutual respect and necessity
instead of a spirit of imperialism founded on military glory and the
pride of possession.

The first distinctive feature of English Bombay was its houses.
Owing to its Royal origin Bombay was not divided like Madras and
Calcutta, into a fort or factory with a Black Town attached and
garden houses in the suburbs. The fort was Bombay Castle, which
was built after and not before the English occupation and was a
fortress rather than a market place. The English and Portuguese
lived at first in the centre of the town, where the Indian city gradually
grew up around them ;*7 later they built garden houses on Malabar
Hill and elsewhere, but they retained town houses in Bombay. 48
There was never a sharp distinction between White Town and Black
as in Madras, and there is in fact no mention of a Black Town until
the end of the period ; 4 9 for Fort and Black Town were substituted
the Castle and the city, for English merchant princes and Indian
dependents, English governors and the cosmopolitan governed.
The houses themselves were less pretentious than those elsewhere
but by no means small or uncomfortable. 5 ° This is amusingly
illustrated by travellers' reports ; those who knew only Bombay
found them handsome and comfortable and those who knew the
east coast as well thought them small and unpretentious. 5 1 The
details of the houses also varied. They had sloping tiled roofs
instead of flat, 5 2 wooden verandahs supported on wooden pillars
instead of the heavy ‘ piazzas' of Calcutta and Madras, and they
lacked the splendid classical porticoes of the other settlements .53
But they used ' chunam * for their walls both inside and out ,54 and
glass or small transparent shells for their windows 55 instead of the

MINlSr^

BOMBAY

al iron or wood lattice work. Bombay had also distinctive
servants. The upper servants were either Parsis or Mahommedans,
the cooks usually Portuguese or Goanese, the ladies’ maids Malabar
girls instead of Portuguese or Eurasian, and the gentlemen’s personal
servants Malabar or ‘ caffre ’ (negro) slave boys> The negroes who
were perhaps the most distinctive feature of the Bombay servant
world, were specially imported from Madagascar in English ships,
and were also brought from the Red Sea. as a speculation by Arab
traders. The Government used them both as labourers and
soldiers, and drew up the most careful regulations for their proper
treatment. In 1789 there were 431 slaves in Bombay.57 On
arrival they usually became Roman Catholics, being much attracted,
we are told, by the images of saints which they saw the Portuguese
and the black Christians wearing on their breasts. English servants
were rare, and when they appeared were considered a portent by the
Indian servants and made their masters the envy of the settlement.5 8
As in Madras, soldiers were sometimes borrowed from their regiments
as coachmen, who were otherwise usually Parsis.59

Another Bombay peculiarity was a reputation for inhospitality,
colonel Rennell wrote in 1761 that the ‘ few inhospitable habitations
serve to cover the heads of those whose chief end is gain and the
estiuction of their fellow creatures ’. Le Couteur in 1790 far more
deliberately complained that the people of Bombay ‘ are reserved
m their manners and show no hospitality to strangers. It may be
0 l ec ^d perhaps that it is rash, if not ungenerous, to pronounce in
so decisive a manner against them, but the character they have
orne at all times sufficiently warrants the censure ’> Against this
lere is the evidence of Forbes who as an old resident might be
consi Citd prejudiced, of Chaplain Cordiner who only resided in
Bombay twelve days, and of Mrs. Graham who visited India at the
'erj, en of the period. The explanation of these conflicting views
perhaps that the Bombay settlers by the smallness of their
numbers and the generosity of their hospitality towards each other.

quired at once an open-handedness which spent itself on each
otner and a clan spirit which looked with suspicion on strangers.

a r res ‘ dent like l'orbes or to people well armed with introductions
,. ' or !r ‘ er an d Mrs. Graham, Bombay would therefore be hospit-
e enough but the young officer without connexions like Rennell

unkn CaSUa J V ‘f. ltor like Le c °uteur 61 might easily find themselves
" ° w ^ “ nt ^ disregarded. In mid-century Bombay it was the
dirm° In ^- 1G P r ^ c ^P^ inhabitants to dine with each other in turn,
a + s ° mciuding supper as a corollary. 61 The more congenial

out'-;/ y j 6 ! CSS lt wiU feel the need for any reinforcement from
side, and this was probably the root of the trouble. The man

Ml NlST/fy

THE NABOBS

proper credentials was well entertained, but woe unto him
who had no introductions.

The Bombay carriages were also distinctive. Owing to the
scarcity of horses ' hackary ' carts drawn by white oxen were used
instead of the ordinary English chaises and gigs. The oxen ‘ trotted
and galloped * up to seven or eight miles an hour, but had to be
periodically stopped in order to remove the foam from their mouths
to prevent their suffocation . 6 3 In 1754 Admiral Watson was granted
a chaise and oxen while in Bombay harbour. By the end of the
century the use of horses had spread to the rich Indian merchants
who prided themselves on their speed and dash, 6 * but hackary carts
were still sometimes used even by the Europeans. 6 ^ But what
distinguished Bombay more than anything else from the other
settlements was the Parsi community. Though early to appear,
they were slow to settle in large numbers ; when at last they really
established themselves, they soon became one of the most influential
elements of the town. More than any other factor they contributed
to the wealth of Bombay, and they gave it the atmosphere of cosmo¬
politanism and racial tolerance which it still possesses. Their
outlook on life was more sympathetic to the English than that of the
Mohammedans with their love of glory and memories of departed
empire, or of the Hindus with their pacifism, ‘ superstitions' and
absorption in religion. They had no purdah system to close their
houses to strangers, no prohibitions of pork, beef, or wine—those
essentials of English regard—to embarrass social and convivial
relationships, no caste distinctions to segregate themselves from the
outside world and from each other. Even in their own customs they
were less ' bigoted * than the other communities and were the first
to adopt European clothes, food and manners. 66 Exiles of many
centuries, they had been compelled to rely on their own exertions
for their existence, and on the goodwill of alien governments for
their protection. In consequence they were at once peaceful and
independent, conciliatory and enterprising. They therefore had no
scruples in coming to Bombay and no dreams of independence when
they had established themselves. Unlike the Christian minorities
of modem Turkey they had no independent motherland to look to
for aid, they had all the political powerlessness of the Jews without
the odium of their religion and occupations. Further, they had as
a supreme claim to the regard of the English, the fact that they
could do the things the English most valued better than the English
themselves. Thus they monopolized both the shipbuilding and the
trade of Surat, having many English ships and captains in their
service ; 6 7 at Bombay they controlled the Company's shipyard all
through the century, where their work was pronounced at least as

SCENE IN BOMBAY

[face p. 75

BOMBAY

any in Europe, 68 and they were frequently partners in
English commercial houses . 6 9 Their munificent philanthropy, their
clan spirit as shown in the care of their poor also appealed to the
free living Englishmen of the time. It is hardly surprising, therefore,
that good relations were established with them from the first. We
hear of a silver rule and a shawl being presented by the Company to
the shipmaster Lowji 7 ° and later to his son and successor, 7 1 and by
1810 the English and Parsis were frequently dining together and
drinking r great quantities of wine and particularly Madeira *. 7 Z
The life of early Bombay, as we have seen, was bound in
shallows and in miseries. By about 1740, however, it had attained
a subdued prosperity, and though still considered valuable for its
relation to the rest of India rather than for itself, 73 could be con¬
sidered in 1754, ' perhaps the most flourishing of any place in the
universe '.74 From that time it grew steadily without any of the
sudden changes which transformed the other settlements from
factories into seats of empire almost overnight. The difference
which Forbes noticed between Lord Valentia’s description of
Bombay and his own recollections was one of degree and not of
kind ; Bombay experienced development and not revolution. There
are several travellers* accounts of Bombay of which we will select
two, written respectively in 1761 and 1774, to give an impression of
the town's external appearance.

This town is situated upon a peninsula the greatest part
of which is occupied by the Fortifications, Powder Mills, etc.
The town all lying low and swampy is generally esteemed
unhealthy for European constitutions, and I think it suffi¬
ciently evinced by the memorials in the churchyard wliich I
had the curiosity to examine ; and find that few survived
the age of 38. . . . The Fortifications fall very far below
those of Pondicherry both in design and execution. There
is a dock capable of taking a 70-gun ship and a small yard
in which the work is performed by Indian artificers, who are
observed to use but two kinds of edged tools, tho* their work
is durable and neat. There is also a large Market Place
where most sorts of Indian and European goods are sold by
Black merchants who in general live in tolerable houses : the
Governors house is a large commodious building adapted to
the Country, as are several others set apart for the use of the
naval Commanders. The Houses are all built of stone and
good cement made of a sort of lime called by the natives
Chinam, which is said to be more durable than the common
European cement. The Church is an incontestable proof of

WON' 4°

THE NABOBS

>ur having long since discarded all outward show of religjop
and the temper and disposition of the inhabitants testifies
that they have resolved never to discover their inward
thoughts if any, at least but to themselves. The common
methods of travelling, both here and in every part of India
is in a Palanquin which is a light frame of wood about the
size of a small couch, and, is used like a Sedan chair with this
difference only, that the traveller extends himself on bedding
placed there for that purpose. Besides these there are some
chaises belonging to the governor.

The Magistrates of Bombay are styled the Governor and
Council, the latter of whom are generally chosen out of those
of the inhabitants on whom nature has bestowed corpulent
bodies ; to this sort of people the natives also pay a kind of
adoration, so that a man of a moderate size must never expect
preferment here.75

This is the account of Abraham Parsons in 1774 :—

The town of Bombay is near a mile in length from the
Apollo gate to that of the bazaar, and about a quarter of a
mile broad in the broadest part of the Bunda, across the
green, to the Church gate, which is nearly in the centre, as
you walk round the walls between the Apollo and the Bazar
gate. There are likewise two marine gates, with a com¬
modious wharf and cranes built out from each gate, besides
a landing place for passengers only. Between the two marine
gates is the castle, properly called the Bombay castle, a very
large and a very strong fortification, which commands the
bay : the works round the town are so many and the bastions
so very strong and judiciously situated, and the whole
defended with a deep and broad ditch, so as to make a strong
fortress, which, while it has a sufficient garrison, may bid
defiance to any force which may be brought against it. Here
is a spacious green, capable of containing several regiments,
exercising at the same time ; the streets are well laid out,
and the buildings (viz. the gentlemen’s houses) so numerous
and handsome as to make it an elegant town. The soil is a
sand, mixed with small gravel, which makes it always so
clean, even in the rainy season, that a man may walk all over
the town within half an hour after a heavy shower, without
dirting his shoes. The esplanade is very extensive, and as
smooth and even as a bowling green, which makes walking
or riding round the town very pleasant." 6

MIM/S/fy,

BOMBAY

On the esplanade, there were numerous tanks and wells, so
ia t besides the crowd of Europeans in carriages, on horseback or
on foot, it was occupied by groups of washermen beating their linen
on their peculiar washing stones, with strings of better class women
coming from their houses to draw water .77

At that time the English merchants lived in the town, but from
a ou t I 77 °> the taste for garden houses developed. 78 They spread
along Back Bay until they reached the various cemeteries of Bombay
English, Portuguese, Armenian and Mohammedan. Behind was
a thick wood of coco-nut trees, and in front the shore was used for
Imdu cremations, the remains of which were washed up by the tide
and lay scattered on the strand.79 The garden houses spread
inland all over the island and in time to Malabar hill.

Old Woman's Island or Colaba was still separated from the
mainland and was chiefly remarkable for its lighthouse. 80 Salsette
belonged to the Marathas until 1782, and even then continued to be
admmistered on the Maratha system, which made development
cu n. 1 It was connected with Bombay by a causeway built by
Governor Dimcan from 1798 to 1805. Elephanta island belonged to
the English but was little appreciated before the visit of Niebuhr
in 1764, who complained of its neglect by earlier travellers. With
16 growth of the interest in Hindu archaeology, it became a regular
resort for visitors.

Bombay was less favourably placed than elsewhere for a health
Resort. Apart from a sea voyage, the chief resource was Old Woman's
' vf and ' sea breezes of which were considered very bracing. 82
f ut enjoyed the distinction of springs within reach on the main¬
land at Dillinagoga 8 3 which were said to be as hot as the Bath waters.
1 here were no arrangements for bathers ; bathers simply camped
near the springs for as long as they wished—but their reputation was
great^enough to attract people from Bengal.

The English society of Bombay was arranged on a strictly
Hierarchical plan from the Governor, through the senior and junior
eician s to the factors and writers, the common soldiers and
thp S ‘- RuleS ° f P rocedure were a s strictly observed at the end of
th , Cen ur T as at the beginning, so that Mrs. Graham could complain
thp n ° ^ enera ^ conversation was possible at a Bombay dinner, since
din Same invariably met and sat next to each other at every

it . ® om bay was, however, peculiar in the larger place

gave to military officers in its earlier days. The chief military
an r1 ? r ' vas a Major instead of a Captain , 8 4 and he commanded more
armv ^ tr , 00 P s 5 than the Madias and Calcutta captains. As the
EomV VdS u re atlVe ! y Iarger at first ' i{: was relatively smaller later ;
ay t us avoided the extremes both of early mercantilism or

misr/fy

THE NABOBS

£l

juwlitarism. Apart from these officials there were a few ^
/merchants, the common soldiers, whose behaviour and health were
a constant anxiety to the authorities, and a considerable floating
population of seamen. The compartments of Anglo-Indian society
were so hermetically sealed that it is easy to forget that this class
formed the majority of the European population at all the settle-
ments. Their chief resorts were the ‘ Roman Catholic taverns
and the pariah houses, and their mortality bills equalled, through
the neglect of the authorities, the mortality of the authorities them¬

selves through intemperance.

The unofficial population apart from these was always small.
In 1720 the list of 1 free merchants, seafaring men, etc. at Bombay '
including women, totalled fifty-nine; in 17 5 ° it was fifty-two. In
1785 the non-officials excluding women and common sailors, totalled
only seventy-two, made up of five free merchants, nine seafaring
men (chiefly supercargoes) three attorneys, three tavern-keepers,
a gaol-keeper, and the master of the charity school. The floating
population of seamen varied much from year to year. In 1766,
239 seamen in the Company’s service at Bombay are enumerated,
in 1792 there were 150 officers manning forty-three ships on the
Bombay coast . 8 7 There are no statistics for sailors at the end of
the century, but they probably tended increasingly to be replaced
by lascars. 88 About the soldiers we have more exact information.
In 1737 there were 500 soldiers and 300 sailors employed by the
Company besides 115 at Mocha ; 8 9 in 1767, 1,961 infantry and
artillerymen, which in 1775 was reduced to 1,512.9°

The official population of Bombay was not much larger than
the unofficial. In 1746 there were eighty-nine on the civil list 9 I
which the Company wished to reduce to sixty-nine, 9 s under the
impression they were supporting in men. * The whole European
population/ wrote Cordiner in 1798, * would not exceed one
thousand /93

In 1766 the daily life of the Bombay factors, says Forbes, was a
mean between early discomfort and later luxury. Early rising was
the rule, with a ride before breakfast. In the morning all attended
at their offices from nine to twelve. Dinner was at one o'clock
after which the writers returned to work from two to five o'clock.
Tea was then taken, after which a walk or ride on the esplanade
prepared the way for supper and a social evening .94 The principal
men dined with each other in town, and always stayed to supper.
Later the hour of dinner was moved to the evening as in Calcutta,
and its place was taken by ' tiffin ' at two o'clock, but the old habit
of a hearty midday meal survived with the result that the dinner
was often hardly touched .95 The cadets only mounted guard once

MIN/Sr/jy

BOMBAY

J a week, 9 6 and mostly spent the mornings in calling on e;

__ ^Jnvith the aid of ‘ punch ’ and arrack and water. Later on they

were sent to Versorah or Salsette, where the unhealthy conditions
often carried them off.

On occasions like Christmas Day the Governor gave a dinner to
all the gentlemen on the island .97 The island had not the reputation
for wealth which Calcutta and Madras enjoyed ; young adventurers
looked on Bombay as a sort of exile, and it was quite natural to find
that the man who kept the best table in Bombay in 1771 had made
his fortune in Bengal. 9 8

In their society ladies played a slowfy increasing but not very
distinguished part. At first there was a good deal of intermarriage
with Portuguese Christians 99 but this died out among the upper
classes. They were often replaced by ‘ dulcineas *, sometimes
European, but more often Indian or Portuguese. The number of
European ladies slowly increased, but in 1809 they were still in a
minority of one to three r men. Mrs. Graham dismisses them curtly
as being like those of an English country town, ' underbred and
overdressed/ and with the exception of one or two very ignorant
and ‘grossidre \ ' The men are in general what a Hindoo would call
of a higher caste than the women/ 100

Ihe amusements of Bombay were much the same as elsewhere :
m Bombay itself riding, dining, dancing and card playing, in canton¬
ments with the army hunting, shooting, cock-fighting and dog¬
fighting. 101 Of Indian amusements they enjoyed nautches and
hookah smoking. But there was one amusement of the early
actors which seems to have been unique. 102 Sallying forth into the
banian’s quarters of Surat they pretended to shoot sparrows and
pigeons, whereupon the distressed banians came out of their houses
mid offered them money to go away. The same stratagem was
practised by a Bombay soldier in 1764 who led an ill-looking dog
rough the, streets with threats and curses, whereupon the banians
ottered him gifts in order to save the dog . I0 3 This delightful
rait was appreciated by a man like Forbes, who prohibited the
shooting of birds in the territory of Broach.

The century was for Bombay one of preparation. On the
whole, in spite of its inauspicious start, the work had been well done,
mid though the English in Bombay might have the minds of the
average English country town, Bombay was ready to become, in
spirit as well as materially, the gateway of the West.

miSTfty

Chapter V

THE MOFUSSIL

During the first half of the century the interior was largely a
closed land to Europeans. None penetrated except on business;
these included only occasional embassies, the few Europeans who
took service with the local princes as soldiers, and especially artillery¬
men like Manucci, missionaries like the Roman Fathers in Tanjore,
Agra and Bengal, and finally the agents of the chartered companies.
The European soldiers were absorbed into the general population
and disappeared, ambassadors and professionals were rare and
passing visitants, the missionaries lived lives of isolation and often,
like the Jesuit missionaries at Madura or later Dubois, adopted the
manners of the country so that only the merchants were left to form
any permanent settlements.

These mercantile settlements were subordinate factories to the
Presidency towns; their business was to act as buying and selling
agencies and to despatch goods to the main stations. Their time in
the north was much taken up by disputes with the local Moghul
authorities, but in the south there were only local chiefs to deal with,
and the monotony of life was relieved by the periodic arrival of ships
to load their goods. Subordinate factories were usually in charge
of a senior merchant or member of Council, and they lived on a
smaller scale than the collegiate factory life of the larger settlements.
In Bengal the chief subordinate factories were at Patna, Dacca,
Kasimbazaar, Balasore and Hughli, on the west coast at Surat,
Calicut, Anjengo and Telicherry, and on the east Fort St. David,
close to the town of Cuddalore, and Masulipatam. In addition
there were factories controlled from India like Gumboon in the
Persian Gulf and Fort Marlborough in Sumatra.

The life of these factories was a miniature model of the larger
settlements ; those employed in them hoped to return to head¬
quarters, and their principal peculiarity was a greater tendency,
from their isolation, to breed 1 characters ’ from among those who
stayed in them long. Such a one is described in a letter to the
Secretary of the Directors in 1715.

Indeed Adams is the best man for the place [Telicherry]
barring his knavish character. He is almost a Native, very
well beloved by them, very active and unweary'd ; at Cali-
cutt the Natives come to him for Justice between one another ;

80

MIN/Sr^

THE MOFUSSIL

if anyone were sent under Him for a year or two to see the
usiness beforehand and then Adams removed (if that fitt)
'tis I think the most feasible way. 1

Later Governor Boone wrote of Adams : 1 Beside he is Master
of the language and a man of great interest in the Country.’ 3
Another mofussil eccentric of a rather later date — the famous John
Whitehill, was described by Eliza Draper.

He’s an Extraordinary Character, Unequal, but there is a
great Mixture of Good I might also say of sublime in it—for
He’s generous, Highly so, and literally despises Money, but
as it serves to promote his Happiness—which wholly centres
in his Friendships—once attached, he is steady in these as
the sun is regular in its course—but then He’s passionate
and Jealous, even to Madness — if the Objects of his regard
seem to give any other individual a temporary Preference
this is the source of extreme Misery to himself, and to all who
live with Him—for the heart—the Heart my Coz :—is a free
Agent, and will assert its liberty of Choice in spite of the
Chains imposed upon it by Gratitude, Interest or the love of
ease. In short He is one of those Beings whom his Friends
would sacrifice life or Fortune to serve or Oblige, rather than
devote their whole time to Him (be secret as the Grave, as to
this Communication) and unfortunately nothing but their
time would either satisfy or even Amuse him. . . . He’s
capable of all the great Exertions to purchase Affection but
alas ! He can neither relinquish his foibles or suppress them,
to secure Esteem .3

The best description of subordinate factory life is given by the
same authority, when at Telicherry.

I m by turns the Wife of a Merchant, soldier, and Inn¬
keeper, for in such different capacities is the Chief of Teli¬
cherry destined to act. . . . The Country is pleasant and
healthy (a second Montpelier), our house [a fort and
property of the Company] a Magnificent one, furnished too,
at our Master’s expense and the allowance for supporting it
Creditably, what you would term Genteely, tho’ it does not
defray the charge of our Liquors which alone amount to
six hundred a year ; and such a sum, vast as it seems, is not
extravagant in our situation, for we are obliged to keep a
Public Table, and six months in the year, have a full house of
Shipping Gentry, that resort to us for traffic and Intelligence

THE NABOBS

J§L

from all parts of India, China and Asia. Our Socieil
other times is very confined, as it only consists of a few
Factors and two or three Families; and such we cannot
expect great intercourse with, on account of the heavy rains
and terrible thunder and lightning to which this coast is
peculiarly subject six months in the year. Tis call’d that
of Malabar, and was before the troubles with Hyder Ally,
the source of immense wealth to its principal inhabitants ;
the French and Dutch as well as ourselves have each a
settlement on it. Mah6 is not more than seven Miles distant
from us (Yet very few Civilities pass between us and the
Monsieurs) and Cochin (a Sweet Spot) about two Days’ sail .4

With the rise of the Company’s political power in the middle
of the century the mofussil settlements entirely changed their
character. Special passes were still necessary for residence in the
Company territories^ and settlement was not allowed, but the
number of Europeans up-country steadily increased. They con¬
sisted firstly of diplomatists, soldiers, officials and adventurers. The
diplomatists were the residents at courts like those of Murshidabad,
Benares, Lucknow, Gwalior and later Delhi, the soldiers were
Company’s troops, European as well as Indian, who were stationed
in cantonments in Oudh and Bengal; the officials were the Collectors
who from 1772 administered Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and the
Commercial Residents 6 who carried on the Company’s business
until 1833, and the adventurers were men of all nationalities who
took service with the various princes of India, both north and south,
and who tried to carve out fortunes for themselves in the growing
political anarchy .7

The Residencies were much sought after for their financial
advantages, and were accounted the most lucrative posts in the
services until the time of Cornwallis. The Resident of Benares,
according to Cornwallis, received Rs. 3,000 from the Company, but
four lakhs in all, exclusive of the monopoly of all commerce and the
power of granting 4 perwannahs ’. 4 It is supposed,’ he wrote, 4 that
they were not ungrateful to the friends of the Governor-General.
There is no reason to suppose Mr. —— took more than his predeces¬
sors—God knows what he gave.’ 8 According to Hickey his friend
Potts was 4 screwed up ’ by Sir John D’Oyley to three lakhs with
go,ooo rupees for furniture for the Murshidabad residency, which
was then considered the most lucrative post in the Company's
service because all the Nawab’s transactions passed through his
hands. It was at these courts that there was most contact between
the upper classes of both races, and a very cosmopolitan spirit was

THE MOFUSSIL

iveloped .9 In the cantonments on the other hand, the society
was exclusively English and predominantly masculine ; there the
habits of Madras and Calcutta, modified to suit camp life, prevailed,
and fashions lingered on which were waning in the capital until the
slowly percolating feminine influence finally saturated camp life also.
Between the two was the united residency and cantonment where
Orientalism and Imperialism, like two seas, met.

The leading example of this union was at Lucknow, which on
account of its magnificence, its extravagance, its luxury and its
cosmopolitanism, may be called the centre of mofussil life. Here
was a Nawab with the whole revenue of a province to draw upon to
satisfy his private whims, a Resident through whose hands a million
pounds were said to pass annually, a British garrison from the times
of the Rohilla war near by at Cawnpore, 10 and last, the French
adventurer General Martin. He and the Nawab were the twin
luminaries of this society, the Nawab with strong European tastes,
the Colonel adopting a * semi-native ’ way of life. 11 Asaf-ad-daula
developed a passion for mechanical toys and English objects of all
kinds which were all placed together in a special room ; * watches,
pistols, guns, glassware, furniture, philosophical machines, all
crowded together with the confusion of a lumber room \ ia In
addition he had a menagerie, which contained, besides a tiger and
other animals, a large English dray horse, which being kept as a
curiosity for his extraordinary bulk, was fed unsparingly and in
consequence became enormously fat and unwieldy.^ The next
Nawab, Sa’adat Ali, 1 * from long residence in England had adopted
English habits and lived in the English style. According to Lord
Valentia he was not always treated with the respect due to him by
the Europeans, and had to resort to bujdng up all the houses on the
river in order to control their tenants, 1 *

Claud Martin, the twin luminary of Lucknow, was born
* n *735 at Lyons, came to Pondicherry in 1752 and probably
joined the English army after the fall of that town in 1761.
After various vicissitudes he was allowed, when a captain, to
remain in Oudh in charge of the Nawab’s arsenals. From
this time he remained in the Nawab's service, rising steadily
meanwhile in the English* army, until in 1795 he became
a Major-General on a Captain’s pay. He died in 1800 worth
thirty-three lakhs, 16 most of which he devoted to founding the
Ea Martiniere schools in Lucknow, Calcutta and Lyons. The
means by which he amassed his wealth are interesting.^ He had
- r u*st his salary from the Nawab, amounting to Rs. 1,860 a month.
As superintendent of the arsenal he would follow the usual custom
°t taking a commission on all purchases. He further derived a large

THE NABOBS

mtome from indigo cultivation, which he practised on hired or
purchased land, either himself or by agents. These were his regular

sources of income. In addition, however, he probably took con¬
siderable commissions on the purchase of curios from Europe.
Lord Valentia, indeed, accuses him of profiteering, but while he is
acquitted of this charge by S. C. Hill, it seems probable, in the light
of the parallel case of Dr. Blane mentioned by Mirza Abu Taleb
Khan, that he at least did not do it for nothing. 18 Indeed, at a time
when commissions on all public purchases were customary, there is
no reason why he should not have done. Next he probably received
presents from suitors to the Nawab’s court in order to obtain a
hearing. He was connected with most of the loans which the
universal habit of obtaining everything on credit made endemic,
and he acted as a sort of aristocratic insurance house, charging
12 per cent on valuables left with him for safety. This rate was not
exorbitant, but in the circumstances it doubtless brought in a
large sum. Gambling is also attributed to him, but it rests on the
sole evidence of Zoffany’s picture of Colonel Mordaunt s cock-fight
at Lucknow.

Martin was a great builder. His fortress-like palace of
Constantia at Lucknow (now La Marti nidre College) which has
alternately impressed critics by its size and scandalized them by
its mixture of styles, 20 became in 1800 his tomb, to circumvent, it is
said, the Nawab’s intention of appropriating it. In addition he had
a country house on the Gumti, the Farhad Baksh, of which only
ruins survive 21 Twining wrote of the Farhad Baksh : ‘ it had the
appearance of a fortified castle, and was indeed constituted with a
view to defence, with* drawbridge, loopholes and turrets and water
when desired all round.’ 22 Shore gave an excellent description of
both the man and the house in a letter to his wife . 2 3

In the evening of yesterday I din’d with General Martin ;
who is a most extraordinary character, and everything about
him. The house is built on the bank of the R. Goomty, and
boats passed under the room in which he dined. He has
under-ground apartments, 2 * even with the edge of the water,
the most comfortable in the world in the hot weather, and
the most elegantly decorated. As the water rises, he
ascends : the lower storey is always flooded in the rains, and
the second generally ; when the water subsides they are
repaired and decorated. The two rooms containing the
company, consisting of somewhat more than 40 ladies and
gentlemen, were covered with glasses, pictures and prints:
in short you could see no walls three feet from the floor.

miST/fy

THE MOFUSSIL

e had a pair of glasses ten feet in length and proportionately
wide ; and estimated his glasses and lustres only, in the said
rooms, at Rs. 40,000 or £4,500. It would require a week at
least to examine the contents of his house. The old General
is a Swiss, and talks English about a degree better than
Tiritta, interlarding every sentence with * What do you call
it ? 1 ‘Do you see ? ' . . . He is, however, a man of much
penetration and observation ; and his language would be
elegant if it corresponded with his ideas. His singularities
are amusing, not ridiculous. There was dancing in the
evening ; and a very pretty exhibition of fire-works on the
opposite side of the river, which pleased me, would have
delighted and frightened Charlotte.

§L

The General kept four Eurasian concubines and a regular staff
of eunuchs and slaves. He also brought up a number of the
children of Europeans who had left Lucknow and made provision
for them in his will . 2 5 His charity was mostly posthumous, but in
his life he was a generous entertainer; his breakfasts and dinners
were famous. His tastes were .shown at the sale of his effects which
included 4,000 Latin, French, Italian and English books, Persian
and Sanskrit manuscripts, works of Zoffany and Daniels, and 150
paintings in oils.

Round these two men together with the Resident, a more
ephemeral but almost equally important personage, revolved the
society of Lucknow. The adventuring element disgusted Lord
Valentia, but the greater part of this society was composed of the
officers of the subsidiary force and their families. ‘ They lived/
wrote Twining in 1784, ‘ in a style far exceeding even the expense
and luxuriousness of Calcutta ; they dined alternately with each
other and kept a band to play who had learnt English and
Scotch airs/ 2 . 6 On specially auspicious occasions, such as the
purchase by the Nawab of ‘ Constantia \ the whole settlement
was entertained by the Nawab.

Apart from these few cases of cosmopolitanism, the army in
general lived an entirely separate life, either in cantonments or in
camp. A number of officers have left diaries and journals of their
campaigns both in the Mysore and Maratha wars, so that we can
obtain a very fair idea of their life.

The officer who went forth to war against Hyder Ali had a very
clear idea of the importance of personal comfort. In 1780, during
fhe most critical period of the Company’s fortunes, 2 ? a captain was
accompanied on campaign by a dubash (steward), a cook and a
boy a horsekeeper, a grasscutter, a barber, a washerman and

miSTfiy.

THE NABOBS

<SL

officers \ Fifteen to twenty coolies carried the baggage and
a ‘ dulcinea ' z8 sometimes completed the party. He often had a
palanquin and the following items of luggage— ‘ A good large bed
mattress and pillows, camp stools and chairs, a folding table, shades
for candles, six or seven trunks with table things and a stock of linen.
He also carried with him some dozens of wine, brandy and gin, tea
and sugar, a hamper of live poultry, a milch goat and finally an
extra tent for excess of luggage and servants. Some of the luggage
was necessitated by the fact that there was no officers' mess at that
time, each officer providing for himself , 2 9 but it helps to explain the
difficulty of the army in keeping pace with the mobile forces of
Ilyder. During the Maratha wars a subaltern's kit included a tent
twelve feet square with walls six feet high, and a bell tent for
baggage and servants. Four bullocks or a stout camel were required
for this, another camel or four bullocks to carry liquors, clothes and
cooking apparatus, and another camel for mess trunks and camp
furniture. The total outfit consisted of a horse, eight or nine
servants and three camels or ten bullocks for the baggage. 3 °

All officers had marquees, which, after the day's march of from
ten to twelve miles, were pitched in lines as in England, with a
bazaar in the rear. The soldiers naturally did not fare so well;
six large tents were provided for each company of Europeans and
three for each of sepoys. 3 1 Their baggage and knapsacks were
carried for them by servants, who, it is said ‘ spoke English well
and often became very attached to their masters '. 3 * They had only
to mount guard in their own quarters, but they had to live under
canvas of only a single thickness during the hottest weather. Their
tents were ten degrees hotter than the officers' double-lined tents ,33
and they suffered much from dysentery and sunstroke .34

1 he bugbears of camp life were ‘ cotton ground ' and storms at
night. The former, called by wags the Holy Land, was ‘ a jet black
soil, which in dry weather was full of holes dangerous to ride over,
but in rain a deep and almost bottomless puddle '.35 Flooding was
prevented by small earthen embankments made round the tents,
but a second irruption, that of the officers' own servants, could not
be prevented. Whenever a sudden storm occurred an officer's
servants crowded into his tent for shelter. When their number is
remembered, the congestion must have been considerable and was
not at all appreciated by the occupant, but protest was useless, for
if they were driven out the whole staff forthwith decamped, leaving
their master next morning indignant but impotent. 3 6

The day was usually spent in marching or drilling. In 17.80 the
army usually set out after breakfast, was harassed by the Mysore
horse about noon and arrived at its next camping ground for tiffin.

misTfy

THE MOFUSSIL

tiffin the officers rested and slept and awoke refreshed for
mer .37 In the last war against Tipu much the same procedure
was followed. The army marched at daybreak to the sound of
drums and fifes, the officers riding beside their men instead of
reclining in palanquins, as was formerly common. If the enemy
horse were not near the officers often indulged in sport, and the
monotony of the march was relieved by the curiosity of villagers
who turned out to watch the army and often brought out dancing
troops from the neighbouring pagodas. 3 8 In camp, drill and
manoeuvres commenced at 5 a.m. to which officers sometimes turned
out direct from the mess table .39 These continued for several hours
until the time for breakfast. After breakfast the officers engaged
in private hobbies like sword exercise and then slept for two hours
until dinner at 3 p.m. At 5 p.m. the regiment was turned out again
for further drill until sunset. 4 °

The two things which must impress the reader of these journals,
apart from descriptions of the actual fighting, both from the
frequency and relish of the references, are dinners and sport. The
bottle and the gun were the twin emblems of camp life. In the
eighteenth century there were no regimental messes ; each officer
catered for himself. It was the custom in consequence for the
officers to dine with each other in rotation, and he was accounted
the best officer who was most generous with his tiffins and dinners.* 1
An invitation to dinner usually carried with it an invitation to the
next morning's breakfast and tiffin as well, and for these joint meals,
the possessions of all the officers concerned would be pooled. With
the new century the custom of messing together began ; the messing
was done by contract with a banian at a fixed charge per head, but
once^ or twice a week there were grand dinners when guests were
^omitted.* 2 On these occasions our authors become lyrical in their
descriptions of the courses, their statistics of toasts and of bottles,
and in their records of endurance feats. Drinking, which was on the
crease in the settlements by the end of the century, flourished
unchecked in the army ; Wellington's famous estimate that each
raan must have his bottle of wine per day was a minimum rather
an a maximum. The dinner hour grew gradually later in camp
settlements, and after 1800 it became fixed at 8 p.m.
instead of the earlier three o'clock. One such dinner is graphically
esaibed by Major Blakiston .*3 The guests arrived at 7 p.m. and
We} comed by the playing of ‘ The Roast Beef of Old England *
y he band. Officers and guests mingled on the verandah, enjoying
e ast puffs of the breeze and a first taste of Madeira until eight
° when dinner was served. Fish and soup was followed by
a huge * turkey which was considered essential to an Indian dinner

7

MINIS?*,.

THE NABOBS

<§L

it time, or an equally huge ham with curries and rice,
followed by plum pudding, after which the cloths were removed
and hookahs were brought on. Each man had his own servant who
stood behind his chair. Then the sergeants entered to present their
orderly books, and the drinking began. The colonel or senior
officer, who presided, drank with the different guests while each man
drank with his neighbour. Then came the ceremony of the toasts.
Every mess taxed its ingenuity to increase their number and each
was honoured by appropriate tunes from the band. The first was
to the Ladies, to the tune of * Kiss my lady the next of the King,
with the National Anthem, then the Duke of York and the Army,
then the Duke of Clarence and the Navy with ' Rule Britannia \
then the Company with the tune of ' Money in both pockets ', then
Lord Wellesley, Lord Clive, Lord Lake, ' General Baird and the
heroes of Seringapatam and any other name which a well-heated
imagination might conjure up. The company was now warming to
its work ; everyone in turn was called on for a song, which was
applauded by banging fists on the table and honoured by a toast and
a tune at the end. At io p.m. the Colonel retired, after which
‘ a few choice spirits closed on the President \ and continued the
proceedings with the aid of dishes of olives, anchovied devilled
biscuits and devilled turkey. The Major escaped during a dispute
about the next guard to a volley of ‘ Shabby fellow 4 Milk sop
' Cock Tail ', etc., and left the remaining choice spirits to continue
till the small hours of the morning.44 The drinking bouts which
seem regularly to have taken place resembled the ' daily super¬
abundant potations of champagne and madeira ' in which Hickey's
set indulged,45 and which in the settlements had now gone out of
fashion. The diarist records the chinking at Sarssney of three and
a half dozen of claret and 4 a proportionable quantity of Madeira '
by fourteen people in a bout which ended with breaking the candle
shades and glasses, ‘ pranks which too frequently finish drinking
parties in this quarter of the globe/4 6 This was doubtless an
exceptional exploit, but other references make it clear that a bottle
of claret a day was the normal share of each man.47 Arthur
Wellesley was considered 1 very abstemious with wine ; he drank
four or five glasses with people at dinner, and about a pint of claret
after \4 8

In the cantonments the troops lived in barracks and the officers
in bungalows. At Cawnpore, the largest cantonment in Northern
India, ^ the compounds were called ' estates '.49 As the political
conditions became more stable cantonments acquired a settled and
permanent character. The first officers had gone without meat,
poultry and even vegetables, had dined at mid-day and drunk all

miST/fy

THE MOFUSSIL

<§L

but by 1800 , there was a marked improvement both in comfort
and manners,5° attributed largely to the influence of Comwallis.5 1
Ladies also appeared at these stations, and their influence produced
still further results in the same direction. In 1800 , however, when
their numbers were still small, gaming and heavy drinking were still
customary, manners were still very masculine, and their presence
was not always appreciated. At dinner they acted as a restraint on
the conversation, and on their retirement the men not infrequently
forgot to follow them. ' Many of the party saw no more of the ladies
this evening; in truth they too much resembled the generality of
Indian dames to afford much attraction. The bottle was not
unusually preferred, and generally confessed to be best so.’5 2 The
same writer mentions a social war between the bachelors and
married officers of Bareilly on account of the European mistress of
one officer, and described the ladies there—‘ a more stiff set I never
fell in with; plain, proud and ignorant, attempting the airs of
gentlewomen though it was more than probable that previous to
their arrival at our markets most of them could not boast a change
of dickies twice a month ’.53 Ladies who ventured to these stations
had also to be prepared to meet the traditional eccentrics. One such
is described in 1805 at Ghazipore.54 ‘ After the ladies had with¬
drawn, the bottle was pushed pretty rapidly, and our host spoke so
plainly and loudly that we were necessitated to shut the drawing
room door, and about ten the old fellow reeled away to pay his
respects to the ladies, very far gone and unable to walk without
assistance. . . . We left him about 12 fast asleep in his chair.’

The second amusement of the military was sport. In the
cantonments racing and gaming were the two chief amusements.
Ly the end of the century most of the cantonments had at least
their annual race meetings. But it was in camp and on the march
that the soldier revelled in an unlimited supply of game of all sorts
for shooting or bunting. In the unsettled state of the country and
especially of Northern India, and in the sparsity of the population,
immense stretches which are now cultivated lay waste and wild.
At the end of the century, for instance, it was not safe for a traveller
fo proceed from Delhi to Agra or Lucknow without protection by
u ay and shelter by night. Game abounded and was not limited by
ri ghts which had to be observed. Big game shooting at that time
Was for the few, and was only conducted on elephants or from
tt*achans (platforms).55 It was, of course, a favourite diversion of

the

princes who organized elaborate shoots for their European guests.

^ t the hunts of the Nawab of Arcot, who attended * with a wonder-
ully large retinue Sir Martin Hunter wrote, ‘ a net about a mile
on g was stretched outside of a jungle, supported by poles of 8 feet

THE NABOBS

very 5 or 6 yards. This net was made of very strong cor
as my finger \ 5 6 On the Nawab’s arrival on an elephant a
thousand poligars (woodmen) dived into the woods, ‘ making a most
hideous noise, firing off matchlocks, sounding horns and beating
drums. The terrified animals—deer, boar, jackals, hyenas, foxes,
hares, and sometimes tigers, were driven on to the net where they
were indiscriminately shot down. ' I was much surprised/ added
Sir Martin, ‘ that they did not shoot one another ; a regiment could
not have kept up a more constant fire for nearly an hour/57

The ordinary officer obtained ample sport by hunting and shoot¬
ing. In the south wild hog, jackals, hyaenas, foxes, and deer were
hunted or coursed. The wild hog was hunted by two sets of dogs,
greyhounds and Poligar dogs, who were ‘ fiercer than a bull-dog and
full as fleet as a foxhound \ 5 8 The greyhounds came up to the boar
and engaged it until the poligars arrived and held on and the hunts¬
men were able to finish it off with spears and pistols. Sometimes
the him ter stuck the pig at full speed, but this was not the general
practice before the end of the century . 59 Foxes were coursed
because no scent would lie half an hour after sunrise, and deer were
coursed either with dogs in the Deccan, 60 who separated fawns from
the herds and chased them, or else by specially trained leopards with
their teeth drawn. The chief difficulty in hunting was the hounds,
who seldom lasted more than one season, but were nevertheless sold
‘ at astonishing prices '. 6l They very easily took disease, the most
common being the bile, staggers, rabies and mange. 62 The place of
English hounds was in part taken by a country breed of Poligar dogs
crossed with the English greyhound . 6 3

In shooting the sportsman displayed a most catholic taste.
In 1803 one records shooting the following in the course of a few
successive days* sport in Northern India 6 *— tiger (near Bareilly),
hogs, deer, florikin, otters, hyaenas, alligators, turtles, partridges,
hares, quails, nielghy, peafowl, snipe, ortolans, teal, pigeons (‘ from
a bridge about which they swarmed '), 6 5 king-crows, mango birds,
parrots and parakeets, sparrows and ' a small green bird very
common in India \ On 16 May 1803 he killed seven brace of hares,
twenty brace of black partridge, several deer and hogs before break¬
fast, and afterwards proceeded to fish at the Kiary Lake near
Bareilly. A net was stretched right across the lake, and when the
large fish jumped right over it, large ' choppers' (covers of thatch
made of grass and bamboo and used for huts) were fetched from the
village and men were put on them with clubs to knock the fish on
the head as they jumped over. Some jumped into the boat and were
despatched with a boat hook. ' The quantity of fish we killed
exceeds all belief/ exclaims our author, and concludes his page by

MNlST/fy

THE MOFUSSIL

in g horror at infanticide and suttee. 66 In Northern In*

__ ^Uy, game seems to have been prolific. Broadly speaking,
a man shot on service and hunted in cantonments.

Another class of mofussil dweller was the indigo planter. The
indigenous Indian industry, whose centre was in Gujarat, declined
in the eighteenth century, partly owing to the adulteration of the
Indian dye as the result of high prices, and partly because of the
discovery of a source of the dye in America. With the loss of
America, however, the American supply passed into the hands of
the hostile United States ; while at the same time the cultivation of
sugar and coffee was found to be more profitable in the West Indies.
The West Indian industry was finally killed by the negro revolts
and the wars of the Revolution period. 6 ? In these circumstances
from about 1780 onwards the Company took up the cultivation of
indigo. Planters were brought from the West Indies to selected
Bengal districts, the Company's officers were allowed to trade in
indigo, and subsidies and advances were given for a time. By 1790
the European indigo industry was well established, and spread
rapidly northwards from Bengal as far as Delhi; the old Gujerat
industry slowly languished and died. 68 From 1780 private planters
were establishing themselves with government licences in Bengal,
Bihar and Oudh (where they were more difficult to control), and
providing for the officials a pretty problem in racial relations. The
nature of these difficulties is shown by a Bengal government circular
dated 13 July 1810.

The offences to which the following remarks refer, and
which- have been established, beyond all doubt or dispute,
against individual indigo planters, may be reduced to the
following heads:

First. Acts of violence, which, although they amount not
in the legal sense to murder, have occasioned the death of
natives.

Second . The illegal detention of the natives in confine¬
ment, especialfy in stocks, with a view to the recovery of
balances alleged to be due from them, or for other causes.

Third. Assembling in a tumultuary manner the people
attached to their respective factories, and others, and engag¬
ing in violent affrays with other indigo planters.

Fourth . Illicit infliction of punishment, by means of
rattan and otherwise, on the cultivators or other natives. 6 ?

Thomas Munro, in his evidence before the Committee of 1813,
corroborated this. 7 °

misTfy

THE NABOBS

(St

..^^xfhe cultivation was carried on by means of advances from
'planters to the cultivators, who undertook to cultivate a fixed
quantity of indigo at a fixed price. Oppression of the peasants
might arise through compulsion or extortion in various forms.
The ryot's only remedy was an appeal to the courts, where the
planter's influence and his own poverty gave him very little chance
of redress. 7 1

J At this time indigo planting was a lucrative and favourite
Ccupation of the non-official European. Carey worked indigo for
a time at Debarta, where his character gave the villagers much
perplexity from its contrast to that of the average planter. Martin
of Lucknow farmed indigo at Nadjaf Garh as his friend de Boigne
did at Koil. The planters lived as a rule isolated and lonely lives,
which goes far to explain their irregularities, and their object was
to make a fortune and return as quickly as possible.

The last class of European in the mofussil was the military
adventurer. The wars of the English and French in the middle of
the century, and the gradual onset of the ‘ Great Anarchy ' in
Northern India in its latter half, favoured their appearance. They
were of all classes and all nationalities, serving under established
states like Hyderabad or Oudh, under rising military adventurers
like Sindia, the Begam Samru or Ranjit Singh, or setting up for
themselves like Thomas of Hansi. They reached their zenith under
Ranjit Singh, who had French, Italian, English and Anglo-Indian
officers; Kaye in his Life of Metcalfe gives a list of seventy such,
and recent research in the Punjab Record Office has revealed many
more.? 2

The most famous names were Raymond of Hyderabad, who
saved that state from the Marathas, de Boigne and Perron in the
service of Sindia, Martin at Lucknow, the notorious Walter Rein¬
hardt, Skinner, Thomas, and in the Punjab Generals Allard, Ventura
and Avitabile. Few but the highest returned again to Europe, and
most adopted a semi-Indian mode of life. Some married into the
best Mussulman families, like Major Hyder Hearsay, who married
Zuhur-ul Nissa Begam, daughter of the deposed prince of Cambay
and adopted as a daughter by the Emperor Akbar Shah 11,73 or
Colonel Gardner, whose descendants live as zamindars in the United
Provinces^ and lay claim to the dormant family barony. Col.
Hearsay's son married the Nawab Mulka Humani Begam, daughter
of Mirza Suliman Sheko and niece of Akbar 11.75

The life of General Martin has already been described, but his
case is hardly typical, since he lived in a large capital. Comte
de Boigne's establishment at Koil (Aligarh), which Twining visited
in 1794, illustrates better the typical adventurer’s mode of life, or

miST/fy

THE MOFUSSIL

<§L

^ raM 0 the mode he aspired to once he had gained sufficient wealth
and success. 7 6

Dinner was served at four. It was much in the Indian
style: pillaws and curries, variously prepared, in abundance;
fish, poultry and kid. The dishes were spread over the
large table fixed in the middle of the hall, and were, in fact,
a banquet for a dozen persons, although there was no one
to partake of it but the General and myself. [An elephant
ride followed dinner. The next morning after breakfast the
general called for his * chillum ' (hookah) which aroused the
traveller's enthusiasm.] What a mean and vulgar thing
does the tobacco pipe seem, when compared with this, even
in the mouth of its great patron, Dr. Parr.

After this the general held a Durbar when vakils and men
of rank paid their respects. His little four year old son, dressed
as the child of an Indian prince, and ' of a Kashmirian tint *,
was brought in; de Boigne was unmarried, ‘ but he had it
appeared his seraglio \77

The Company's servants who spent many years in the mofussil,
also sometimes adopted this mode of life. Such a one was
Ochterlony, who possessed mansions at Delhi, Karnal 7 8 and else¬
where, and who is said to have startled Bishop Heber by his oriental
habits, Fraser, whose friendliness to the Delhi families was not
appreciated by his brother officers of the thirties ,79 and many
others. Colonel Collins, resident at Sindia's court, was thus
described by Major Blakiston. 80

Such was the state maintained by this representative of
John Co. (known in Bengal by the nickname of King Collins)
that he had a brigade of field pieces, worked by native
artillerymen, attached to his escort. In front of a noble
suite of tents, which might have served for the Great Moghul,
we were received by an insignificant little, old-looking man,
dressed in an old-fashioned military coat, white breeches,
sky-blue silk stockings, and large glaring buckles to his
shoes, having his highly powdered wig, from which depended
a pig-tail of no ordinary dimensions, surmounted by a small
round black silk hat, ornamented with a single black ostrich
feather, looking altogether not unlike a monkey dressed for
Bartholomew fair.

The military adventurers, from the brilliance and eccentricity
pf their lives, are perhaps the most fascinating of all the Europeans
111 India. But the magnificence of the few, and the halo of romance

miSTfiy

THE NABOBS

<SL

ich time and military glamour have shed upon them, must not
blind us to the majority, obscure officers and renegade soldiers, who
led lives of hardship and often of degradation, and found in the end
unhonoured and obscure graves, forgotten equally by the country
of their birth and of their adoption. 81 As in the settlements,
the wealth and luxury of the few were offset by the squalor and
hardships of the more numerous but forgotten ' Low Europeans’.
Amongst adventurers as amongst the settlement dwellers there was
no middle class ; a man was either a rajah or a serf.

MiN/sr*,.

Chapter VI

SIDELIGHTS OF ANGLO-INDIAN LIFE
Personal Rules of Life

Scattered in the records of the eighteenth century may be found
a number of personal rules of life. Though some of them were more
in the nature of counsels of perfection than seriously observed rules,
they serve to emphasize the fact that not all the English lived
irregular and dissipated lives, and that then as now the really bus\
man could not afford to live wildly. There was much sober living
and hard work in the eighteenth century as well as much excess and
merrymaking. Those who neglected these rules found places in the
great cemeteries of the eighteenth century settlements, and the
number who thus found early graves indicates the extent to which
these rules were disregarded. But a regular life, then as now, had
its votaries, and they were probably far more numerous than the
ordinary picture of eighteenth century society would suggest.

In 1768 Mrs. Kindersley thus described life in Calcutta. ' In
Calcutta at that time the custom was to rise early, to dine at one
to two o'clock, to take a siesta afterwards and then to dress and take
the air at sunset in carriages. Finally the evening was given up 10
social intercourse/ 1

Captain Williamson thus advised the new arrival for his first
year in India. The newcomer or 1 griffin ’ should rise at dawn
and should ride for one or two hours. Breakfast followed, at which
melted butter (ghi), salt meats, fish and sweetmeats were to be
avoided. He should then take up language study for an hour and
proceed to his office for an hour in order to learn business. After
dinner at two to three o'clock [the hour had moved to 6 or 7 0 clock
by 1800] he should rest. An hour before sunset he should
bathe by throwing a pot of water over his head, and then take a a
airing. His dinner, whether at two or at seven should be of plain
food, at which not more than four or five glasses of the best Mack ira
should be drunk. The day was concluded by two hours language
study, after which some bread and one glass of Madeira preceded
sleep. 2

This is specially interesting as providing a standard of what the
Anglo-Indians themselves regarded as plain and simple living. How
many observed it may be judged from the study 01 the obituary
records.

95

WNisr^

THE NABOBS

Warren Hastings in 1784 wrote that he rode eight miles before^
reakfast and took a cold bath . 3 At meals he took nothing stronger
than tea or water ; he took no supper and went to bed at ten.

Sir John Shore, in a letter to Lady Shore, dated 21 January
1787, wrote : ' I rise early, ride seven to ten miles, and breakfast by
eight o’clock : after that business occupies my time till the hour of
dinner, which is three. Our meals here are short: and in the
evening, when the weather permits, which at this season of the year
is daily, I walk out. The remaining time between that and ten
o’clock, which is my hour of rest, I spend with my friends; as I
make it a rule not to attend to business of an evening. Suppers are
by no means agreeable to me. At present, we have balls every
v/eek ; but I am not fond of them ; and indeed have been at one
private ball only, which was given by Lord Cornwallis ; nor yet have
I attended one play.’** ' Most men who worked hard in offices,’ he
wrote in 1789, 'worked for six hours a day.'

Cornwallis rode out on horseback at dawn, and attended to
business during the morning until the time of dinner, about two.
At sunset he drove out in a phaeton and then wrote or read for two
hours. At nine he ate fruit and biscuits with two or three officers
and went to bed at ten .5

Lord Wellesley wrote in 1798 : ‘ I rise early and go out before
breakfast, which is always between 8 and 9. From that hour until 4
(in the hot weather) I remain at work, unless I go to Council or to
Church of Sundays ; at 5 I dine and drive out in the evening. At
present I drive out at 5 and dine a little after 6. No constitution
here can bear the sun in the middle of the day at any season of the
year, nor the labour of business in the evening. After dinner,
therefore, nobody attempts to write or read, and, in general, it is
thought necessary to avoid even meetings on subjects of business
at that time. . . .’ 6

The Punkah

^ The punkah, or swinging fan, suspended from the ceiling and
worked by a cord on a pulley, was introduced into Anglo-India
towards the end of the eighteenth century. Colonel Yule in
Hobson-Jobson gives quotations to show that this device was known
to the Arabs ; it was invented by Caliph Mansur (a.d. 753-74) and
was known as the Mirwaha-t al Khaish (linen fan). He also quotes
from Bernier, who speaks of ' good cellars with great flaps to
stir the air ’ in Delhi . 7 But Bernier suggests no mechanical con¬
trivance and may have meant only the large fans which were held
over a noble by a slave. There is no other reference to swinging
punkahs in Moghul India, and no sign of their use in an}^ of the

misr/fy

A FAMILY AT TABLE UNDER A PUNKAH

MIN/Sr/fj,

SIDELIGHTS OF ANGLO-INDIAN LIFE

_^ ^loghul palaces. Even if they were used in the undergroun

apartments at Delhi, their use certainly never became general in the
palace proper, and the orthodox Moghul fan consisted of a large flap
which slaves held over a grandee as he sat at ease amidst his
cushions. If the swinging fan ever existed in Moghul India, its use
never spread to the Europeans.

At first the Europeans used the ordinary Moghul fails. Captain
Fryer says that at Masulipatam the air was fanned with peacock
tails by servants who also held umbrellas over them.** At Suiat,
according to Ovington, the factors were fanned with murchals
or fans of peacock feathers four to five feet long .9 I hese large fans,
together with small fly switches, were those in use until the eighties

of the eighteenth century.

The exact date of the introduction of swinging punkahs is
uncertain, but we can confine it within fairly narrow limits. They
first appeared in Calcutta, where the first reference to them is made
in 1785, but they could not have been used before 1780, as they do
not appear in any of the inventories preserved in the India Office
which extend from 1755 to that date. They were not in use at
Nand Kumar’s trial. On the other hand, they must have been
fairly well known in Calcutta by 1785 ; William Hickey then
records the opinion of Lord Macartney when on a visit from Madras,
that the use of ' punkahs or hanging fans, suspended by ropes from
the ceiling, to cool them while eating their meals was "very
luxurious . 10 This reference incidentally shows that the punkah
had not yet reached Madras. It penetrated to Bombay still later,
where it is first mentioned as being in general use by Mrs. Graham
in 1809. 11

De Grandpr 6 thus described the Calcutta punkah in 179° •
In many houses there was ‘ a large fan hanging from the ceiling over
the eating table, of a square form and balanced on an axle fitted to
the upper part of it. A servant, standing at one end of it, puts it in
motion by means of a cord which is fastened to it, in the same
maimer as hie would ring a bell \ 12 The early punkahs consisted of a
large frame of wood, covered with cloth or painted paper ; 13 it was
not till later that it was discovered that the decorative fringe of
cloth attached to the frame produced on account of its pliability a
better draught than the rigid frame. During the nineteenth century
the frame grew smaller while the fringe grew larger until the final
form of a large cloth hanging from a horizontal wooden bar was
reached. This evolution is described by Mr. D. Dewar in his
Bygone India .

In addition to the swinging punkahs, hand fans, made of palm
with part of the stalk for a handle, continued to be used, and

THE NABOBS

iiamson also mentions fly-whisks or ' chowrys' made of wild
oxtail hair, peacock feathers or grass roots (kus-kus). 1 *

Smoking

At the beginning of the eighteenth century the smoking of
hookahs seems not to have been so general as it later became among
the Europeans. In the Factory Miscellaneous Records ‘ i Chamolet
Hoake with a green baise ' is mentioned in an inventory of 1675, 15
but the remaining references to smoking in the book (pp. 44, 51,73 et
seq., and 100), which extends to 1728, all refer to pipes. We read
of f a Box of Pipesof ' 38 Tobacco stopers Brass and Iron ', of
4 one China Tobacco Pipe ' and a ' Box of Pipps ' belonging to
Mr. E. Hanslopp, and * a Parcell of Tobacco and Pipes' sold for
Rs. 6. There are also one or two additional references to tobacco,
but none to hookahs. It seems probable, therefore, that the early
factors for the most part used their accustomed churchwarden clay
pipes.

From 1728 to 1755 no inventories survive, but as soon as the
series reopens in Calcutta in that year there are numerous references,
both in the inventories and in books of travel. We may surmise,
therefore, that the custom of hookah smoking came in during that
time, probably as the result of the increasing contact with Indian
life which the French wars brought about.

In Bombay hookahs were known in the middle of the century
as ' Cream Cans', being named, it was said, after Karim Khan Zend,
King of South Persia in the middle of the century, who invented it.
Another variety was the Ailloon, which Niebuhr says also came
from Persia. 16 The Hubble-Bubble was, according to the same
authority, the poor man's hookah. Thus Eliza Sterne wrote in
1760 of her brother-in-law 1 who will suck a Hubble-Bubble,
draw an Ailloon, smoak a hooka or cream-can with you if you
please V 7 Williamson also mentions the ‘ Kalyan 'as a western
hookah smaller than the average, and with a larger bottom. 10
In Surat hookahs, according to Parsons in 1774, were called
4 Nargils and in Calcutta a small hookah for a palanquin was
called a ' Googoory '. 20

By the sixties the fashion of hookah smoking had become
firmly established. Stavorinus in 1769 says that at a dinner
given to a Dutch Director in Bengal hookahs were placed before each
of the company. 21 From then to the end of the century the hookah
reigned supreme in Anglo-Indian society, the ladies smoking as well
as the men. 22 Grandpre thus describes the etiquette of the
hookah : ‘ The rage of smoking extends even to the ladies ; and
the highest compliment they can pay a man is to give him preference

mtSTfty

SIDELIGHTS OF ANGLO-INDIAN LIFE

Ling his hookah. In this case it is a point of politeness^
off a mouthpiece he is using and substitute a fresh one, which
he presents to the lady with his hookah, who soon returns it. 23

The first sign of the decline of the custom was the action of
William Hickey, who, when told on his arrival in Calcutta in 1778
that hookah-smoking was essential but that a few did not practise
it, promptly refused to touch one . 24 From that time the custom
commenced a decline which became perceptible after 1800. In 1802
Major Blakiston wrote that hookahs were too expensive to be
afforded by many officers, requiring as they did, a special servant
(the hookahburdar) in addition to the cost of the hookah and the
tobacco . 2 5 D’Oyley, in The European in India , a few years later, says
that not one in three were then smokers, although the custom had
been almost universal. But the custom died hard. In the twenties
of the nineteenth century retired Anglo-Indians still often brought
their hookahs with them to England, and one lady is remembered by
Burnell to have used it in Scotland for several years. -In 1840 it
was still common in Calcutta, and it lingered still later in the
mofussil. In i860 there were, a r cording to Col. Yule, still six
hookah smokers in the Madras Presidency ; they had disappeared
by 1878, though a few were still said to keep up the practice in
Hyderabad State. 26

The hookah was replaced by the cheroot or cigar. At first,
according to Williamson, they were only used by the lowest
Europeans, who presumably could not afford hookahs. 1 he cheroot
was like the Spanish * segar ', only rather more expensive. But the
cigar slowly made progress; in 1798 Captain Elers mentions smoking
a cigar , 2 7 and a little later writes of the hookah, that it is much
better ‘ than the horrid, vulgar smell of common tobacco, which I
abominate. I am not very fond of cigars, even when they are good,
which at present is by no means common. They are more than half
spurious \ 28 With these tastes, the cigar was bound to make its way
as the hookah declined, or -rather as the means to maintain them
decreased.

Macintosh's description of a hookah has already been given ;
we will add one more, that of D’Oyley in The European in India.
The ordinary hookah, he wrote, had a glass or composition bottom
containing two quarts, which was two-thirds filled with clear, coid
water. The snake or tube was ten feet long, and was composed
of a bark like sycamore bound round a skeleton of pewter wire, and
covered with a black or purple calico. The mouthpiece was of agate
mounted on a wooden socket. At the other end the snake connected
with a bamboo tube which pierced the top of the water chamber
above the water level. Into the water another tube, a foot in length,

THE NABOBS

to a depth of three inches. Above this tube an
earthenware receiver or ' chillum * was placed, which contained the
tobacco. This was covered by a tile, upon which were placed four
pieces of charcoal prepared from burnt rice. Finally a silver cover,
which fitted the rim of the ' chillum ' covered the whole.

The Palanquin

Throughout the century the palanquin played a large part in
Anglo-Indian life. It was the regular mode of conveyance from house
to office, and on all small journeys of business or pleasure, and
on long expeditions across country. With the growth of roads
carriages of various sorts were used for afternoon airings, but the
palanquin remained the essential means of transport within the
settlements. Everyone down to the writer just arrived from
England possessed a palanquin if he could.

The original palanquin was the ' dooly which was an ordinary
string bedstead, five feet by two, covered with a light bamboo frame
and draped with red curtains. From this the ornate palanquin of
Calcutta and Madras was developed. First the shape was changed
to that of a hexagon. Then the sides were raised, more ornament
was added and the canopy was arched. Cushions were added inside,
and curtains which could completely close the palanquin if desired.
The occupant reclined at full length, and was often supplied with
a specially designed hookah, at which he could puff as he was borne
along to business. The ‘ naulkeen ' or ' naulkee * was a further
elaboration. The frame was five feet by four, the sides richly
carved woodwork, while inside was a chair and pillows. This was
carried by eight men.

Mrs. Graham in 1809 mentions a further development in
Bombay. These palanquins had a wooden frame, and were fitted
with windows and sliding doors within which'one could either lie
or sit. They were * little carriages without wheels \ The decora¬
tions of course varied with the wealth of the owner ; gold and silver
bells, embroidered curtains and tassels adorned the more wealthy. 2 9

In Calcutta Oriyas were usually employed as bearers, but their
monopoly was later broken by men from Patna and Dacca. The
usual number in a set was seven, one cooking for the rest, one being
the sirdar or head bearer. The actual carrying was therefore done
by five men. The palanquin bearers were very independent and on
occasion went on strike.

Medicine

So many general references have been made to disease in the
eighteenth century that it is perhaps worth while to inquire a
little further into the practice of medicine during that period.

misr/},.

SIDELIGHTS OF ANGLO-INDIAN LIFE

Sl

Zaptain Fryer in Bombay in 1674 mentions ' Fluxes, drops]^
^scxirvy, barbiers, or the loss of the use of the hands and feet, gout,
stone, malignant and putrid fevers 9 as the principal complaints. 3 °
Ovington at Surat speaks of fevers, specially ' after a strong
Debauch ', Barbeers, for which the cure was to haunt the ‘ hum-
hums ' (baths), ' which are here in great plenty/ and * mordechine '
or cholera, which he attributed to excess in eating fish and meat
together, and which was cured by applying a red hot iron to the
heel. 3 1 Captain Symson in 1702 mentions the same disease and
the same cure ; the red hot iron, he says, must be applied * so close
that it touches to the quick \ 3 2 He also mentions an interesting
talisman against snake bite. Europeans, he says, often wore a
snake stone in a gold heart hung by a gold chain from their necks.
The stone was a dark, almost flat, artificial stone, * composed of
Ashes of certain burnt Roots, mix'd with a Sort of Earth found
at Diu \ This was all re-burnt and made into a paste which
hardened into a stone .33 The rhinoceros horn was also regarded
as an antidote to poisonous draughts. The Sieur Luillier also
mentions scurvyl; * it is a Distemper occasion 'd by continual
breathing the Air of the Sea, eating Salt Meals and drinking strong
Liquors '.34

Here we may note the emphasis all through the century on the
connexion of intemperance with disease. Ihe connexion was
apparently generally admitted and as generally ignored by all but
a few throughout the period. After Ovington and Symson we find
Niebuhr writing in the same strain of Bombay in 1764.35 In
Calcutta in 1765 Topham wrote that ‘ intemperance is the disease
that destroys more people in those Parts than either Fevers or
Agues \ 3 6 In 1780 Innes Munro wrote of Madras that the bile
was much increased by the * gross manner in which the English
live here and their % excessive use of mixed liquors '.37 Similar
instances could be multiplied including those of men like Hastings
and Cornwallis, who preserved their health by means of a carefully

regulated diet.

The same diseases, with the addition of liver complaints,
continued to be common throughout the century. Thus Dr. Ives,
a surgeon on Admiral Watson's fleet, writes of bilious and putrid
fluxes, and of liver complaints. Fluxes he treated by vomiting
and the administration of rhubarb and ipecacuanha. For the liver,
fever was first abated by bleeding, the patient was then givpn a
purge and treated with calomel. 3 8 Ives gives some interesting
figures of illness in the Admiral's fleet. From 13 Sept. 1754 to
7 Nov. 1757, 6,062 were admitted into hospital, of whom 203
died.

MiNisr*y

THE NABOBS

<8L

syThe following table includes all the diseases which claimed
ore than fifty victims .39

Disease

Number

Deaths

Fluxes

1,8x9

97

Scurvies

1,103

11

Fevers (miscellaneous) ..

900

42

Intermittent fevers

547

17

Bilious obstructions

536

10

Rheumatism

103

2

Bowel inflammation

83

5

Bilious Colics

62

0

Venereal Diseases

58

2

Dr. Lind, in his Essay on Diseases , etc., published in 1768,
speaks of Bengal as the most unhealthy of the three Indian
Presidencies. Intermittent fever was the chief disease, of which
he says 800 Europeans died in 1762. He notes that those that
stopped the use of the ‘ bark ' relapsed, and suggests that the moon
and tides may have some influence on fevers since patients in
Bombay often died at low waters 0 Unlike Dr. Ives, he did not
recommend bleeding. He considers that an unhealthy country has
the following characteristics—sudden and great alteration of the
air, thick and noisome fogs, swarms of flies, corruption of butcher's
meat and a sandy soil .* 1 He advises against exposure in the open
air on a foggy nighty 2 and recommends for protection from the sun
a ‘ bladder dipped in vinegar '.43 In unhealthy places a man should
chew rhubarb, stop his nose with linen dipped in camphor and
vinegar, and put up ‘ some bark, garlic and rhubarb in brandy '.
He should vomit at the first sign of a chill. In the interior he
advises the avoidance of marshes during the rain. Their connexion
with fever had already been noted, but their relation to mosquitoes
had of course not yet been thought of. This opinion was expressed
by the Sieur Luillier, but later we find Surgeon Johnson disagreeing
with Dr. Lind's theory and quoting- Dr. Currie's ' New Theory 1
that marsh airs in themselves were neither noxious nor infectious .44
A few facts of medical history may here be of interest. The
treatment of fever with quinine was first used in Europe to cure the
Countess of Chinchon in 1638 of tertian malaria .45 She was treated
with a bark brought from Loxa, where its use had been known to
the Spaniards since 1640, and where it was called ‘ quina-quina '
by the South American Indians. The disease was first called
* pul vis comitessae ' in honour of the Countess. In 1670 the Jesuits
introduced quinine into Rome ; thence it was distributed through¬
out Europe by the Cardinal de Lugo, and was in consequence known

misTfy

SIDELIGHTS OF ANGLO-INDIAN LIFE

fsuit’s or Cardinal’s Bark The term ‘ Cinchona ’ is derive!

from Linnaeus who thus mis-spelt the Countess’s name in his Latin
name of ‘ Cinchona officinalis \ A controversy as to its effective¬
ness for malaria was settled by Morton and Sydenham and by the
cure of the Dauphin. In the early eighteenth century it was
introduced into the East, but it was not until 1820 that the first
alkaloid quinine was prepared from bark by Pelletier and Caventou.
The term ' mal aria ’ was first used by Francisco Torti in his treatise
Therapeutica specialis ad febres quasdam perniciosas , published at
Modena in 1712. He also recommended the use of Cinchona bark
in its treatment, and with Baglivi described an Italian outbreak in
1715. 46 The connexion of mosquitoes with malaria was fore¬
shadowed by Lancisci in 1717, but the clue was never followed up. 4 ?

Typhoid fever was first differentiated from typhus by Dr. John
Huxham in 1755 in his Essay on Fevers. Typhoid was a ‘ slow
nervous fever and typhus a ' putrid malignant fever \ 48 Dr.
Huxham also recommended a diet of vegetables for scurvy cases.
Drs. Lind and Ives both recommended lemon juice as a cure, and
in I 795 it was supplied to the Fleet by an Admiralty orders
Inoculation was known from very ancient times. It is mentioned
in the Atharva Veda and was known in the School of Salerno. 5 C
In the eighteenth century it was used spasmodically in England,
and in 1769 it is mentioned by Stavorinus who says it was much
practised in Bengal. 5 1 The contagious matter was made up into
powders and either taken internally or else sometimes administered
through incisions. The patient was cured in three weeks. Dr.
Jenner’s discovery, that girls with cowpox were immune from the
small-pox was made in 1778, and his system of vaccination was
introduced into India, according to Williamson, in 1802, where it
slowly became popular. 5 2

Major J. Taylor, a surgeon, in his Travels in hidia (1789)
described the treatment for the usual diseases, in which he makes
much use of * Dr. James’ Powder ’ for colds, fevers and agues. He
recommends a medicine chest for a traveller, with a description
of which we will conclude this chapter.^

(1) Extract of bark with rezin

1 to 2 lb.

2 oz.

Extract of logwood

(2) Opiate confection

(3) White vitriol ..

(4) Acid elixir of vita

(5) Camphor

(6) Powder of snake root

(7) Prepared Chalk

Jib. (not to be kept)

1 oz.

6-8 oz.

2 oz.

2 lb.

8

THE NABOBS

(8) Powdered Nitre .. .. 2 lb.

Catharic Extract .. .. 2 oz.

Glaubos or Epsom salts in a

bladder.

(9) Calomel Preparation .. .. 2 oz.

(10) Dr. James' Powder .. .. 2 oz.

(n) Liquid Laudanum .. .. £ pint.

(12) Tincture of Senna .. .. 1 pint.

(13) Borax.2 oz.

(14) Magnesia .i lb.

(15) Tartar Emetic.1 oz.

(16) Powdered Spanish flies .. 2 oz.

(17) Adhesive Plaster for blisters

(18) Jalap (powdered) .. .. 2 oz.

(19) Cream of Tartar, \ lb. ; salts of

hartshorn; Goulard's ex¬
tracts for cooling washes,
2 ounces of each

(20) Cathartic extract for costiveness

Chapter VII

CHAPLAINS AND MISSIONARIES
Chaplains

It is said that the arrival of Bishop Heber in Calcutta caused
some excitement among the Brahmins and sannyasis. At last, it was
said, the Christians had sent one of their holy men, and their interest
was not urmixed with anxiety for the prestige of their own faith.
So one of the Brahmins was appointed to visit the Bishop and report
to the rest. He reached the Bishop's house, but when he saw the
size of the mansion, the number of carriages waiting at the door,
and the throng of servants, he laughed, and returned to tell his
companions that whatever dangers might threaten Hinduism, the
Bishop was not one of them. Whatever the truth of this incident,
it largely represents the Indian impression of Christianity in the
eighteenth century. At the outset, Protestant missions did not
exist, while the Roman Catholic missions were bound up with the
political fortunes of the Portuguese. Always inclined to lean upon
the secular arm, the Roman missions had followed in the wake of
Albuquerque's soldiers, and the eloquence of St. Francis Xavier was
soon followed by the inquisition at Goa. On the one hand the
Roman weakness for ‘ compelling them to come in ’ found full scope
in the Synod of Diamper and its efforts to obtain the submission of
the Syrian Church, on the other hand the Jesuit genius for experi¬
ment and adaptation resulted in the interesting Madura Mission.
Its leader was Roberto de Nobili, known as ‘ the white Brahmin ',
who endeavoured to win the Hindu intellectuals by learning Sanskrit,
discoursing philosophy and observing all the high caste rules. But
other bodies, the Capuchins, the Austin friars, the Theatines, the
Franciscans, the Dominicans and the Carmelites, soon followed the
Jesuits, and to the missionary entanglements in politics was added
the traditional rivalry of the orders. They mostly had their head¬
quarters at Goa, whose monasteries, schools and stately churches
formed the largest part of the city. 1 In 1700 was just beginning
t lat long decline, which lasted throughout the eighteenth century
arid reached its nadir in 1815 with the publication of the Abbe
Dubois' famous jeremiad, asserting not only that the missions had
lost two-thirds of their adherents in the course of eighty years, but
that the remainder were Christians only in name. 2

105

THE NABOBS

The only other European representatives of Christianity in
India were the English and Dutch chaplains. At the opening of the
century the Company was still largely under Puritan influence ;
the Directors showed much concern for the spiritual welfare of their
servants, inquiring after their morals, and both supplying books
applied for and recommending others themselves .3 The early
chaplains like Ovington were serious and devout men, punctilious
in their daily prayers, preachings and their catechizings, and the
new charter of 1698 in the same spirit provided that every ship of
500 tons burthen should carry a chaplain .4 But with the new
century the changing moral and religious atmosphere in England
soon made itself felt in India. The tone of the Directors became
more haughty, and they began to treat their chaplains in the
Lutheran manner as the servants of all, instead of in the English
way as the indispensable adjuncts of any gathering of gentlemen.
Their tone and their methods became so peremptory that at last a
protest was made to Archbishop Wake, which led to a change of
attitude .5 From that time the Directors maintained a typically
mercantile attitude; what obligations they could evade they did,
and what they could not they accepted with a good grace as part of
the order of things. So for sixty years they carefully sent out ships
of 499 tons in order to escape providing the statutory chaplain ; 6
they frequently failed to observe the rule that ' every garison and
superior factory' should have a chaplain ; and they appointed
Danish missionaries as chaplains instead of finding men of their own,
but for the rest they accepted the position and treated the chaplains
honourably and well .7

In the settlements themselves the chaplains were always of
some importance. This was due primarily, not so much to the
nature of their profession, as to the fact that they were professional
at all. In the days when the doctors were often quack ex-soldiers
like Voulton or adventurers like Manucci, the chaplains carried the
whole weight of learning and the whole dignity of the professions in
the settlements. They were the only people not avowedly con¬
nected with trade, and they represented the culture and learning
as well as the solemnity and piety of England in India. In the
early days their salary of £100 a year ranked them equal to the
Second in Council and inferior only to the Governor ; 8 in addition
they had a diet allowance and the privilege of the use of a palanquin,
though governmental respect stopped short at the provision of a
' roundell 1 boy for their umbrellas when they walked abroad.?
The duties of a chaplain were to read prayers twice a day, to preach
twice on Sunday, to catechize the children, to administer the
Sacraments once a month and on the three major festivals, and to

CHAPLAINS AND MISSIONARIES

_• on the usual clerical round of funerals and marriages. 10 But
they also very early showed an interest in education. Special
masters were originally employed for the education of the European
children (beginning with the ex-soldier R. Ord in 1678), 11 but the
care of the Charity Schools and Orphan Asylums of Madras and
Calcutta soon became part of the chaplain's duties and usually
devolved on the junior chaplain. 12 Apart from this they had the
conduct of all marriages, baptisms and burials. These duties in the
early factories were not very onerous, and this fact, together with
the hope and later the necessity of augmenting their salaries, tempted
them into various extraneous activities. The most obvious of these
was trade. Under the Charter of 1698 the chaplains were on the
same footing as the other covenanted servants with regard to trade.
They were prohibited from most of the important branches of the
Europe trade, but might trade as they liked elsewhere as long as
they did not neglect their duties. Private trading on the part of a
clergyman was forbidden by law, but was winked at by the Company
within limits. Evidence of its existence is scattered all through the
century; Clive and Rennell both mention private trade as one of
tie advantages of the Chaplaincies. They recommended them to
t leir relations, and John Owen of Calcutta shows in his letters that
the practice was still regarded as permissible and customary. The
practice seems finally to have been killed by the stricter notions of
the Evangelical chaplains at the close of the century. 13 The extreme
example of secularism was perhaps that of the Rev. R. Palk, who
returned to Madras as the Governor himself. In distinction from
the Directors, the local governments were usually friendly to the
c *aplains, and often collaborated with them in raising their salaries
against the will of the Directors.Another outlet for their energies
ttas the provision of buildings. The Madras church already existed
at the beginning of the century, being described by Lockyer as the
equal of any in London except for the lack of more than one belles
Rut at that time the church in Bombay lay roofless and but half-
built owing to the difficulties of the Child wars, and the church at
Calcutta had still to be built. 16 Later in the century the chaplains
ound the provision of education for the increasing number of
uropean children an important question, and spent much time in
raising the money and in managing the various male and female
asylums which grew up. Later still, they turned to philanthropic
wonc like the raising of money for famine relief, and finally as the
century closed the new Evangelical chaplains bethought themselves
of missionary work.

It is not easy to distinguish the life of a chaplain from the life
of the settlement at large. The difference was one of function and

THE NABOBS

§L

/pf/status and mode of life, and to the average Hindu he wo|
certainly be no holy man, but only a European more curious than
the rest. The English lack of religious observance was frequently
commented upon by the Hindus ; we find the Brahmins of Broach
asking why the English, in distinction from all the other Europeans,
never observed their religion, 1 ? and the English lack of religious
observance was one of the difficulties encountered by Swartz,
Martyn, and the Abb 6 Dubois. 18 The chaplain's way of living was
much the same as the rest of the settlement. In Madras the
chaplain had rooms provided for him at the back of the church,
which in 1756 he complained were too small for a married man .*9
Inventories of their property show that there was little difference
between them and the ordinary factor, except perhaps in the greater
supply of and taste for books. 20 As the factories developed into
settlements the chaplains became more numerous and more active,
though perhaps relatively less important. They no longer ranked
with the Second in Council, but instead became the chartered
philanthropists of the settlements, from whom the organization of
education and charity was naturally expected. Thus we find them
connected, as before mentioned, with the orphan asylums of Madras
and Calcutta, and organizing famine relief in Madras in 1782. The
century ends as it began, on a note of deepened earnestness. As at
the beginning the slowly breaking clouds of Puritanism still hung
over the factories, at the end the breeze of the new Evangelicalism
had begun to stir the stagnant waters of religious life. Enthusiasm
had raised its head in England in defiance of all propriety and good
taste, and Simeon's emissaries—the Evangelical five 21 —spread the
infection to India. Under their influence the services became less
formal and perfunctory; elegant exposures of the ‘ deistical
writers ' were replaced by fiery castigations and warnings of the
wrath to come, to the initial scandal and ultimate increase of the
congregations. With this new zeal came a new interest in missions ;
the chaplains were no longer content with the vicarious discharge of
their missionary obligations by Danish and German workers, and
began actively to sympathize with missionary ideals, and with the
Baptist pioneers, Carey, Marshman and Ward, until Henry Martyn
appeared in 1806, a missionary in the guise of a chaplain. With the
revival of zeal came a revival of controversy, and the century which
opened in Calcutta with disputes between High and Low Church¬
men, ‘ where all religions were tolerated except the Presbyterian ', 22
ended with the philippics of good Latitudinarians against Baptist
conventiclists, and protests against the hell-fire preaching of Martyn.

The chaplains in the eighteenth century have been alternately
represented as uniformly corrupt, the three-bottle orthodox going

CHAPLAINS AND MISSIONARIES

Bengal counting-houses, or as the scrupulous followers
duty's stem decree \ an impeccable if somewhat uninspiring
band . 2 3 The first view represents a mentality which likeJ to apply
to the past standards it would never think of exacting from the
present, while the second betrays that modern fashionable taste for
unearthing all the peccadilloes of saints and discovering all the
virtuous might-have-beens of rogues. The truth, of course, lies
between the two. The chaplains could’not logically be better as a
body than the class in England from which they sprang, and they
were not likely to be worse than the settlers themselves. The reply
of ‘ corruptio optimi pessima' will not serve in this case, for the
Church of England in the eighteenth century had no pretensions to
great holiness. 4 True piety without enthusiasm ’ was its ideal,
as an eighteenth century epitaph put it; it represented the quint¬
essence of normality, and was as much shocked by the enthusiasts
who tried to rise a little higher as by the deists whom it considered
to fall a little lower. * The Church of England/ said an eighteenth
century bishop, ‘ is a happy mean between the meretricious gaudi¬
ness of the Church of Rome and the squalid sluttery of fanatic
conventicles/ Average virtue could only produce by reaction
average vice, and since there was very little enthusiasm for good to
begin with there could hardly be much enthusiasm for evil by
Teaction.

The official income of the chaplains and the efforts they made
to increase it are proof enough against their apostolic simplicity, 2 ^
but their various public and philanthropic activities are also a.
disproof of their complete lack of zeal. They were much less than
fiery apostles of the faith, but also more than merely commercial
parsons, and they certainly fulfilled the test of a virile priesthood
in being as a whole slightly better than the rest of the population.
The black sheep among them were occasional and not typical—the
Rev. St. J. Browne, whose servant fell twenty feet off a terrace in
trying to escape his blows, and who remarked to suggestions of
rescuing him, f Let him go to hell 1 ; 2 5 John Mitchell who mas¬
queraded as a clergyman and married the daughter of Captain
Williams on the strength of it, 26 and Chaplain Fordyce, whose career
of calumny (punctuated by such remarks as that J. Fowke ' was
a dark designing villain ’, whose ‘ nose he would slit the first time
he met him \ that ‘ he had knocked him under the table at the
Governor’s ' and that * he would put off his canonicals any time to
do himself justice *) was finally cut short on the complaint of Clive
whom he had called ‘ a scoundrel and a coward \ 2 ? In general they
were the sporting parsons of the eighteenth century England, trans¬
planted to become the merchant parsons of India —honest, genteel,

THE NABOBS

fry .-i

and dull. Apart from the Puritanism of an Ovington or the zeal
of a Lewis at the beginning, and the Evangelicalism of a Brown and
a Martyn at the end of the century, I have come across only one case
of any intense religious devotion. It is the proposal of a ‘ Europe
shopkeeper of Benares 1 about 1790 to erect with - a few high Church
friends' a chapel for their private devotions. 28 Was this some
private whim, or was it perhaps one of the last faint echoes of the
non-juring movement, * lingering and wandering on as if loth to
die ', the gentle devotion of Ken and his friends, travelling from the
dreamy towers and gardens of Wells to find a strange last resting-
place in the citadel of hydra-headed Hinduism ?

The church life of the settlement naturally varied in proportion
to the changing spirit of the century. At the opening it was the
focus of factory life, with the Governor's house as the social and
ceremonial centre of the settlement. Attendance at daily prayers
was compulsory, and on Sunday the services became a sort of state
function. Attendance continued to be compulsory until far into
the century ; as late as 1744 * every Protestant absent from prayers
without lawful excuse was to pay twelve pence for the poor, and
to be confined one whole week within the house for every such
default \ 2 9 The tradition was so strong that in the absence of a
chaplain, factors were appointed as ' Readers of Divine Service' to
read the daily and Sunday services. They had charge of the church
registers and funds, they read the daily services and conducted
baptisms and burials unless one of the Danish missionaries was
available, 3 ° and what was probably most important from the
factors' point of view, the two readers divided the chaplain s salary
between them. 3 1 Marriages were the only ecclesiastical duty from
which they were relieved, these being performed by the Chief
Justice. 3 2 On occasion they even preached ; in 1718 it was ordered
‘ that Mr. John Turton read prayers in the Church twice every
Sunday and that Mr. Thomas Dunster read a sermon out of Arch¬
bishop Tillotson's works every Sunday morning '.33 The familiar
features of village church life reappeared in India; there is the
weekly church parade, the gossip and the quarrels over precedence.
Later there were complaints of perfunctory attendance, and the
Directors issued stringent orders against laxity. With the expan¬
sion of Madras and Calcutta into fashionable settlements the church
attendance became more and more a matter of form, and either a
rendezvous of fashion or a resort of no one in particular. It became
a convenient place for viewing new arrivals, but it dropped out as a
centre of the social life of the settlements, to be replaced partly by
the race-course, and partly by the Governor-General s levies and
balls. The writer of Hartley House , though inaccurate in details,

CHAPLAINS AND MISSIONARIES

rbbably correct enough in her general description of a church
parade about 1787.

The church is where all ladies are approached, by the
sanction of ancient custom, by all gentlemen indiscriminately,
known or unknown, with offers of their hand to conduct them
to their seats ; accordingly, those gentlemen who wish to
change their condition (which, between ourselves, are chiefly
old fellows, for the very young ones either choose country-
born ladies for wealth, or, having left their hearts behind
them, enrich themselves, in order to be united to their
favourite dulcineas in their native land) on hearing of a
ship's arrival make a point of repairing to this holy dome, and
eagerly tender their services to the fair stranger, who, if
this stolen view happens to captivate, often, not under¬
going the ceremony of a formal introduction, receive
matrimonial overtures. 34

A little later, after the building of the new church in Calcutta,
the ladies were moved from a pew in line with the Governor s to
one in line with the Judges, the transaction giving rise to the
following verse.

The Ladies on the Lord relied
To dignify their forms divine,

But now, forsaken by their pride
To court the praying maidens join.55

That all this had no connexion with religion is shown by the
Calcutta Gazette, which in reporting the baptism of two infants in
the church in 1787, thus solemnly writes: It is hoped that so
laudable an example will become the general practice as the con¬
venience of the new church now removes every possible objection
which might have existed before ; the solemnity of the place, must
also naturally point it out as best adapted for those sacred obligations
which the parties concerned enter into on such occasions. # 3 6 The
extent to which the church had dropped out of the corporate life,
and the gulf which separated it from any real devotion, was illustrated
by the common saying, 1 Is it Sunday ? Yes ; for I see the flag is
hoisted \ One lady, Simeon reports, claimed great merit for every
Sunday morning I read over the church service to myself while my
woman combs my hair ',37 and another, twelve years in Calcutta
and twice married, had never been to church because she had had
no offer of escort from a beau. 3 8 Some of this was perhaps pious
exa ggeration, with a view to appreciating the more the work done
by David Brown, but it points quite definitely to the supersession of

WNIST/fy

' Go k^

THE NABOBS

The Church as a centre of social life. Nor was this altered by the
new school of chaplains of whom Brown was the herald. They
re-filled the church and confirmed the faithful; religion returned,
but fashion still preferred the race-course and Lord Wellesley's
levies.

Another side of church life was developed in Madras, where the
Church functioned as a parish with its own Vestry and Wardens
throughout the century. Their first care was the European poor,
for whom they administered the charitable fund called the Church
Stock and developed the organization of charity schools and
* asylums \ They did good work, until at the close the zealous
Kerr so overdosed his parishioners with vestry meetings39 that their
legality was finally questioned and the whole parish as a legal entity
abolished in 1805.4°

As every nation its government, so on the whole every con¬
gregation gets the ministers it deserves. The East India Company's
chaplains were neither saints nor prophets, and they were perhaps
not even religious in the true sense at all; they probably thought
more of their precedence as next after the Second in Council, of
possible secretaryships for the augmentation of their salaries, or of
the arrival of the ship from China or the Philippines containing the
hoped-for profits on their respondentia bond, than of their ecclesias¬
tical routine work or their Sunday sermons. 4 1 But they were not
as a class either unprincipled adventurers or scandalous livers;
like their confreres in England they were in general competent
members of the most genteel of the professions. They had an
honourable record of church building, of charitable and educational
work ; they supplied what the settlements wanted, a sense of
respectability and of being on calling terms with the Deity ; and for
the rest they behaved reasonably in an Age of Reason, and kept
Religion and Atheism impartially at arm's length.

Missionaries

At the opening of the eighteenth century, as has been said,
the only Christian missionaries were the members of the various
Roman Catholic orders. 4 2 Even their duties were only partly
evangelistic, for they had in addition to their Indian congregations
the spiritual charge of the Portuguese or 4 Topassesdescendants
of mixed marriages from the time of Albuquerque onwards. The
Roman Church was organized into the two Archbishoprics of Goa
and Cranganore, the two bishoprics of San Thom6 and Cochin, all
appointed by the Portuguese, and three Bishops inpartibus appointed

CHAPLAINS AND MISSIONARIES

Pope, who were stationed at Bombay, Pondicherry aft
vJrapoly. Their chief strength was naturally at Goa where two-thirds
of the whole population of the Portuguese territory were Catholic ;
they were found all round the coast to Madras, and small stations
were maintained by the Italian Capuchins and others at Agra,
Lucknow, Patna, Bengal (where they came into contact with the
Calcutta factors), Nepal and even in Tibet .43 But their chief work
was undoubtedly the Madura mission, which in 1700 still maintained
its separate existence and characteristics. Roberto de Nobili, the
founder of the mission in the seventeenth century, was an extreme

example of the attempt to be all things to all men ; his aim was to
win the Brahmins by becoming a Brahmin himself. He and the
members of their mission until their final Papal condemnation in
1744, completely abandoned the European mode of life, donned the
saffron robe of the sannyasi and lived the life of learned Brahmins,
with Brahmin servants and vegetarian diet. 44 But to maintain the
‘ pious fraud ' of the ' white Brahmins ’ it was necessary to disclaim
all connexion with the Jesuit missions on the coast ;45 Pondicherry
could only be visited in secret, and it was the indiscretions of these
coast Jesuits together with the discovery of their connexion with
the white Brahmins which largely destroyed their influence, the
Tanj ore persecution broke out and shattered the mission at the
opening of the eighteenth century. In 1704 the J esu ^ methods
were condemned by a Papal bull, and though the Jesuits resisted
its application with their customary tenacity and suppleness, they
could only delay its final confirmation until 1744 * While the
mission lasted, the missionaries showed great ingenuity in Christian¬
izing Hindu customs and great complacency in tolerating others.
The caste system was maintained to the extent of refusing the Mass
to Pariahs in Brahmin churches, and establishing separate con¬
gregations of Brahmins and Pariahs in the same towns; baptism was
administered after a thirty or forty days* course in the style of a
guru and his disciples, and symbols like the sacred thread were
retained as a triple cord of gold representing the Trinity, with two
silver strands to represent the human and divine natures of Christ.
The other missionaries on the coast did not go so far as this, 46 but
the Jesuits were accused by the Capuchins of Madras 4 ? of com¬
pelling Pariahs to receive the Sacrament at the doors of the churches,
retaining caste marks, allowing men to wear jewels and the women
* talis * which they blessed, with a cross on one side and an idol on
the other, and encouraging the Indian taste for noisy processions at
marriages and funerals and on saints-days. 4 8 The Abb6 Dubois,
who disapproved of these concessions, thus described a Christian
procession.

misr^

THE NABOBS

<sl

Their processions in the streets, always performed in the
night time, have indeed been to me at all times a subject of
shame. Accompanied with hundreds of tom-toms, trumpets,
and all the discordant music of the country ; with numberless
torches and fireworks; the statue of the saint placed on a
car which is charged with garlands of flowers, and other
gaudy ornaments, according to the taste of the country—
the car slowly dragged along by a multitude shouting all
along the march—the congregation surrounding the car all in
confusion, several among them dancing, or playing with small
stocks, or with naked swords; some wrestling, some playing
the fool; all shouting, or conversing with each other, with¬
out any one exhibiting the least sign of respect or devotion.
Such is the mode in which the Hindu Christians in the inland
country celebrate their festivals. They are celebrated, how¬
ever, with a little more decency on the coast. They are all
exceedingly pleased with such a mode of worship, and any¬
thing short of such pageantry, such confusion and disorder,
would not be liked by them .49

Apart from these experiments and an occasional missionary in
the interior like the Abb 6 Dubois himself, the main body of the
priests on the coasts lived in the European manner. They seem to
have lived in the main devoted and sober lives ; we hear of few
scandals among the Catholic priests working in the settlements,
though the old quarrels of Jesuit and Capuchin, bishop and monk,
French and Portuguese continued interminably and they all retained
their genius for political entanglements. If to make a mistake is
worse than a crime the Roman Catholics in India were some of the
guiltiest people in the world. Among them all only two were
Englishmen, the Jesuit, Padre Stephens in the sixteenth century at
Goa, and the Iheatine, Padre Milton, who seems to have been
generally disliked by the settlers.5°

The priests were chiefly brought into contact with the English
as pastors of the Portuguese congregations near the English settle¬
ments. In both Calcutta and Madras there was a considerable
Portuguese population, Madras in particular receiving many of the
inhabitants of San Thome, who abandoned the town after its
capture in 1662. Captain Fryer reported a Portuguese population
of 3 >°oo 1680, 5 1 which in 1787 had become 17,000, in Madras out
of a total of 100,000 Roman Catholics on the Coromandel coast.5 Z
Besides the Portuguese proper, there were the native Tamil con-
gregations, but the dividing line tended always to become more
blurred, and any Pariah who had learnt a European dialect and

MINlSr^

CHAPLAINS AND MISSIONARIES

ii5

Christian ' hat, as Dubois says, could and often did,
as a Portuguese.53 These were the two classes from which
the English, specially in the early days, drew largely for their wives,
girls whose charms as Prof. Dodwell says, promised an early old
age, 'shrill, sluttish and obese'.54 The merchants often married
into the older and often wealthy Portuguese families/ the soldiers
wedded the poorer Portuguese and Topasses.

This is perhaps a convenient opportunity for summarizing the
English attitude towards Roman Catholics in eighteenth century
India. The Directors were more hostile to them than the Councils,
and there developed something of a conflict between the doctrinaire
bigotry of the Directors and the considerations of expediency urged
by the Councils. In 1675 the Directors wrote that the English were
being married, buried, and having their children baptized by Romish
priests,' which we look on as a thing so scandalous to the professors
of the Reformed Religion, that we cannot but disallow all such
practices '.55 Offenders against this rule, and all married to Catholics
who did not bring up their children as Protestants, were to be sent
home on the first ships. This regulation was not repealed until
1721, when it had become manifestly impossible to enforce, but the
prejudices of the Directors only slowly subsided. In 1751 they
wrote to the Madras Council that the Roman Catholic church ‘ in the
very heart of the settlement has been very injurious to us ... it is
to be demolished . . . and not retained on any pretence ', 5 6 and in
1758 in similar circumstances at Calcutta they prohibited all Roman
Catholics and priests from entering the fort so long as the French
war lasted, and took it as a virtue that they did not exclude them
altogether .57

The attitude of the settlers themselves was quite different from
this. The principles of the Reformed Religion wore very thin in
the East Indian factories, even in the seventeenth century. The
prevalence of marriages with Portuguese and other Catholics can be
gauged both by early lists of inhabitants^ 8 and by the Councils'
efforts to reconcile the Directors' orders with their own judgement.
In 1680 they recognized marriages with Roman Catholics by
Company’s servants as valid, but required both parties to promise
to bring up their children as Protestants .59 But as time went on
they found an increasing difficulty in keeping the Roman Catholics
out of anything ; all trace of religious animosity disappeared, to be
replaced by a mixture of opportunism, snobbery and nationalism,
lhus in 1705 they considered the rule against Catholic officers
‘ obsolete ', and cited the case of several India captains and super¬
cargoes in order to justify the promotion of Sergeant Dixon to
Ensign, only salving their consciences by suggesting, * 'tis not

<SL

unlikely his preferment may make him return again to the Prc It
j^eiigion ’. 6o In 1719, when the chief officer of the * Falcon w e ’

11

THE NABOBS

L

became a Roman Catholic because his bride, the daughter of a
Frenchman at Madras, refused to be married there on account of
the 1680 regulations. Council thought of it as a social rather than a
religious scandal, * which practice we apprehend to be of very
dangerous consequence; many of the young gentlemen in the
Company’s service being of good families in England, who would
be very much scandalized at such marriages ’, 61 and in 1721 the
Regulations were repealed, though the President’s consent was still
required. 62 As the century advanced, however, a new complication
was introduced by the increasing rivalry of the French and English
companies. Nationalism entered into the relations of Catholics and
Protestants, and Catholics came again under the suspicion of
disloyalty. So the Capuchins, who had hitherto been favoured by
the Government against the Portuguese Jesuits , 6 3 lost ground as
being French in the Anglo-French struggle for supremacy. In 1751
the Madras Council considered the Portuguese Church ' a very
remarkable nuisance ’ which ‘ ought by no means to be returned
(to its owners) ’, 6 4 and the Calcutta Government experienced the same
feelings of disgust and suspicion after the fall of Calcutta . 6 5 In 1751
the Company sent out, as they thought, Protestant mercenaries
from Switzerland and Germany, only to find on arrival that many
of them were Catholics. 66 The connexion of Catholicism with
French influence continued through the French wars, and is well
shown in the Madras Artillery Regulations of 1747 : ' No Indian,
black or person of mixt breed, nor any Roman Catholic of any nation
Soever' was to be admitted into the artillery laboratory, and the
same regulations barred all Roman Catholics from the artillery and
forbade either marriage with a Catholic or the conversion of a wife
to Catholicism . 6 7

From this time, however, interest in Roman Catholics as such
declined. On the one hand the political danger subsided with the
French defeat, on the other the increasing number of English women
in India reduced the number of mixed marriages among the upper
classes. Romanism was no longer dangerous, it was only super¬
stitious. It was considered only less ridiculous than Hinduism,
and the conversion of Catholics was nearly as meritorious as of
Hindus and indeed much more reasonable. The ' abominations of
Heathenism and the ' mummery ’ of Rome are usually bracketed,
though no one else reached the sublime impartiality of Henry Martyn
when he wrote, ' So much for this Mussulman Lord ; now for
Antichrist in another shape, the Popish Padre, Julius Caesar’. 68
Swartz frequently baptized Roman Catholics as well as Tamils,

CHAPLAINS AND MISSIONARIES

pWnander in Calcutta worked almost entirely among
Iguese Catholics of Bengal.

For the Romanists the century closed amid deepening gloom.
The dry wind of nationalism had dried up the springs of devotion,
and the tempests of the revolution left no surplus energy for foreign
adventures. Sees became vacant, gaps were not filled, Indians had
not been trained to the priesthood , 6 9 and the surviving missionaries,
without resources and without hope, helplessly watched enthusiasm
languish and congregations dwindle. The traveller Twining saw
one such, the Padre Juvenal of Agra, in 1790 and has left a pathetic
description of him. 7 <> He was the only priest of the mission ; he
had never more than twenty and now only twelve converts. Like
his Jesuit predecessors, his chief work was baptizing infants about
to die, who he believed were thus snatched from the hell to which
the millions around him were infallibly doomed. Indeed he
preferred this work to the baptizing of the healthy children who were
only too likely to apostatize later and so suffer greater damnation.
His chief interest was botany, for which he had made two journeys
to Tibet. He so despaired of any success that he had applied for
permission to return, but had been answered by the Holy Father
* recommending patience \ So, forbidden to tread again the streets
of Rome, 4 his own dear land’, he lived on in his own hired house in
that city of departed glory, hopelessly preaching to an uninterested
and almost equally hopeless people.

The Royal Danish Mission was established as a private religious
whim by King Frederick IV of Denmark, and the first missionaries,
Ziegenbalg and Plutschau, arrived in 1706. They met with
every opposition from the Danish Company’s Governor which lasted
till 1714, but in spite of it they persisted, and at Ziegenbalg’s death
in 1719 he had collected a congregation of 428, half Portuguese, and
half Tamils both Sudras and Pariahs. 7 1 The Danish Mission was in
many ways remarkable. It was founded and directed ift Copen¬
hagen, drew its missionaries from the Lutheran Pietists of Halle,
and its income largely from the English Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge. Incidentally it shows how much nearer the
eighteenth century could come to reunion with its ‘ indifference *
and 'rationalism* than the present day with its Lambeth
eirenicons’ and stimulated mass emotions. Later the Society
for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge itself took some of
the German missionaries into its service and continued their support
until they were taken over by the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel in the nineteenth century. 7 * It did not, however,
send out any Englishman, partly because they were not to be had,
and partly because they did not wish to risk friction between

miST/fy

THE NABOBS

(St

carimls*

[licans and Lutherans. 73 One may smile at this vicariC
missionary zeal, but such a natural spirit of tolerance and
brotherliness can well stand a comparison with the average
modern missionary society, with all their devotion and desire for
fellowship. The S.P.C.K. had its reward, for one of its missionaries
was Christian Frederick Swartz.

The Lutherans worked impartially among caste and pariah
Hindus and Eurasian Roman Catholics, and they often acted in
addition as chaplains to the British troops. They soon became
respected members of the settlements, a part of the accepted order
of things. They lived a simple life in the European settlements on
an infinitesimal salary diversified only by preaching tours in the
country round. Their chaplain's fees they usually handed over to
the mission funds, but they had one peculiarity in being allowed to
trade, or as we should express it, to speculate in commercial ventures.
This often benefited the mission, but occasionally led to disaster,
as in the case of the venerable Fabricius, who spent the last two
years of his life, after fifty years' service in Madras, imprisoned for
debt, 7 ^ and of Kiernander, whose mission church in Calcutta was
attached for debt, and was only saved by Charles Grant .75 Other¬
wise they seem to have differed from the other Europeans only in
their greater simplicity, their more regular lives, and their more
intimate contact with Indians. Benjamin Schultze (who worked
in Madras from 1728-43 and wrote the rare and curious Madras
Dialogues) thus described his house : ‘ The house (Capt. Hanson's
sold for 600 pagodas) has all the necessary conveniences which I
could wish for ; there is a great hall which serves for a place to
meet in ; beside my lodging my colleague has an apartment in the
lesser house ; and in the forepart of the same house is the charity
school \ 7 6 In general, missionaries lived in any houses they could
get ; thus Swartz at Trichinopoly occupied a room in an old Hindu
building # just large enough to hold his bed and himself and in which
few men could stand upright', 77 and Henry Martyn occupied an old
pagoda on the banks of the Hughli when he first arrived at Calcutta. 78

The life of these men was a constant round of preaching,
visiting, exhorting, and except for those in Madras and Calcutta, of
travelling. The most energetic of them all, Swartz, thus described
his daily programme at Trichinopoly in 1768. Every morning he
sent out his four catechists whom he called helpers, two Pariahs and
two Sudras, on their different missions. Two went preaching, one
attended the Tamil school and one visited the Christians. In the
afternoon he and all the helpers preached the Gospel. On Tuesdays
‘ we stir ourselves up by meditation and prayer, and to this end we
are engaged on the first epistle of Paul to Timothy '.79 In 1771 he

miST/fy

CHAPLAINS AND MISSIONARIES

irty children in an English school taught by ' two pi
Tiers ' as well as thirty children in the Malabar school. On
Sundays and Fridays he preached to the Tamil congregations ; on
Sunday evening he had prayer with English soldiers in which a
chapter of the Bible was explained verse by verse, and finally he
conducted the public service for the garrison and held after it a
special prayer meeting for his twenty English converts. 80 In
addition to this he constantly itinerated, for * a missionary should be
constantly going to and fro among them \ In his later life at
Tanjore his work was thus described by his nephew Kohloff.

' He rose at 5, breakfasted at 6 or 7 on a basin of tea made in an
open jug, with hot water poured on it, and some bread cut into it.
One half was for himself, the other for Kohloff. The meal lasted not
five minutes. He dined on broth and curry very much as the
natives. He never touched wine, except one glass on a Sunday. 81
What was sometimes sent to him he reserved for the sick. His
temperance was extraordinary, habitual and enjoined on his
catechists and brethren. He supped at eight and after reading a
chapter in the Hebrew Bible in private, and his own devotions,
retired to rest about 10/ 82

With the English soldiers, who were the despair of Martyn and
Brown, his relations seem also to have been very happy. At
Trichinopoly, Chambers reported that he at first read the lessons
to the garrison and sermons from English divines in whom he
discovered an Evangelical spirit . 8 3 When he knew the language
better he preached extempore, first in an old Hindu building, and
then in a church subscribed by the garrison itself. When one
remembers Henry Martyn’s difficulties with the troops one can
agree with Chambers that * it is indeed astonishing, when we
consider the manners of our troops in India, how he has been able
to persuade whole garrisons 9 M

The only one who worked in Calcutta was Kiernander, who
removed thence from Cuddalore after its capture by the French in
1758, and was supported by the S.P.C.K . 8 5 He worked chiefly
among the Portuguese Roman Catholics, and was joined by two
ex-Roman priests. He is remembered by the old mission church
which he built with the fortune of his second wife. Like Fabricius
he went bankrupt late in life owing to the injudicious investments
of his sons, but his church was saved by the efforts of Charles Grant,

The Danish missionaries were generally respected and seem to
have been a singularly devoted and able band of men. Though only
Swartz and perhaps Ziegenbalg rose to greatness, none of them sank
like many of the chaplains below a high standard of devotion and
ability, and the breath of scandal has touched none of them.

m IST/fy

The only other missionaries in the eighteenth century were the
Moravians, who after forty years of effort at Tranquebar in face of
Danish opposition, eventually withdrew, 86 and the Baptists of
Bengal. The first of the latter was John Thomas 8 ? whose eccen¬
tricities earned a frigid welcome for Carey from the Evangelical
chaplain Brown, 88 and the second was the Baptist pioneer William
Carey who arrived in 1793. Carey believed in supporting himself,
and paid the price of his enthusiasm by much hardship before
establishing himself with his family of seven as an indigo planter at
Madnabati. He stayed there 8 ? until he moved to Serampore in
1800 to join the mission party which the Danish Governor, Colonel
Obie, an admirer of Swartz, had invited to settle there. Marshman
thus described his meeting at Madnabati. ‘ The sight of a house
increased my perturbations. At length I saw Carey ! He is very
little changed from what I recollected, rather stouter than when in
England, and, blessed be God, a young man still. He lives in a small
village, in a large brick house, two storied, with Venetian windows,
and mat doors. Fountain (his lay assistant) lives in a (bamboo and
mat) bungalow a quarter of a mile away. Mrs. Carey is wholly
deranged. Their four boys talk Bengali fluently. Felix is 14 or 15.
We arrived in time for the Bengali morning-worship. Carey
preached at 11.0 in the Hall (ground floor of his house). I was much
moved by the singing. There is a Mission school of about thirty/? 0

The relations of the European community in general with the
missionaries went through the various gradations of suspicion,
contempt and wonder. The first Danish missionaries were thwarted
by the Tranquebar authorities in every way for their first six years,
and the Moravian brethren who arrived at Tranquebar in 1760, and
worked for a time also at Serampore, were so harassed by public
and denominational hostility, that they retired in despair in 1803.? 1
Nor were the English at first much more friendly. The Council of
Fort St. George in 1711 wrote that * The Danish Mission is an imposi¬
tion on the credulous ; the collections for them, not being properly
applied'; and hoped they would be stopped in England.?* The
sort of missions they approved was that represented by the Rev.
G. Lewis's proposal to educate Indians as Protestants, which the
Directors thought ‘ so noble a design ' that they ordered Madras to
submit a * plan to them ' md even * would not grudge some charge
to effect it \93 But when the English grew used to the idea of
Protestant missionaries, and still more when they were supported
by * the Right Rev. the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and all the
Episcopal clergy?^ and later by British money ?5 as well, suspicion
slowly gave place to respect and friendliness. Later the Madras
missionaries Fabricius and Breithaupt, and Kiernander at Cuddalore

misr/fy

CHAPLAINS AND MISSIONARIES

£ional duty for the chaplains and later still Swartz was
chaplain. So the Madras Council wrote that' the Danish
missionaries have not wanted our assistance on all occasions, though
we must still continue of opinion that they spend a great deal of the
Society's money to little or no purpose ', 9 6 and the S.P.C.K. thanked
the Company for sending missionaries and various stores passage
free.97 Apart from the Government the general attitude was one of
superstitious respect with a background of benevolent scepticism.
Most men agreed on the sublimity of the missionaries' purpose, but
everyone thought any hope of success chimerical, and was inclined
to criticize missionary methods accordingly. Manucci set the tone :

There can be no doubt that the missionaries who come from Europe
bring with them much zeal. They expect on their arrival in these
Indian lands that their labours will be very fruitful. But they know
nothing and have no experience of these people, nor the fitting way
to deal with them'. 9 8 He made the very modern remark that
* with the profession of Doctor it is possible to do some service for
God ', but it was for a less modem reason that he had himself in this
way baptized 15,000 infants, who were all bound to die.99 The
sceptical view' persisted all through till we find Lord Cornwallis at
the end giving a testimonial to Swartz but complaining that missions
were of no use, 100 and Lord Valentia commented on both their good
conduct and lack of success. 101 Even some of the missionaries
like Dubois and Kiernander held the same opinion. 102

At the end of the century missions came under attack as
dangerous to the political peace of the Company's dominions. The
Bengal Government, oblivious of the work of the still subsidized
Swartz, prohibited preaching in its territory, drove the Baptists to
Serampore, and the Company tried to forbid all missionary activity
in the Charter of 1793 . 10 3 But the fault was not altogether on one
side, for the Compan}^ was first alarmed by an attempt to compel
them not only to permit but to promote missionary work, and the
Bengal missionaries were very different in outlook from the quietist
Lutherans. The man who could sing hymns before the Rajah of
lanjore, preach under Hyder's eye at Seringapatam ; and persuade
English soldiers to build their own church without offence, was very
different in outlook from a Brown, * who never would endure that
they (Indians) should unchecked obtrude their abominations on the
notice of the Europeans', and the tone of whose lectures ‘Anti-
kalee , ‘ Anti-Durga \ etc. can well be imagined, I0 * and a Martyn
who used the parable of the servant beaten with many stripes to
refute what a munshi had said about Mohammedans not remaining
in hell for ever . I0 5 * This is Mohammedanism', said he, 'to murder
as infidels the children of God, and to live without prayer. . . .

MINlSr^

THE NABOBS

that I am more cool, I still think that human nature in
-worst appearances is a Mohammedan. IG ^ And on hearing the
sound of the cymbals of a Hindu temple, he said, ' Never did such
sounds go through my heart with such horror in my life. . . .
I shivered at being in the neighbourhood of hell; my heart was
ready to burst at the dreadful state to which the Devil had brought
my poor fellow-creatures ’. I0 7 One can hardly fad to sympathize
with the Government, sitting, as it thought, on a far from extinct
volcano, when it had to deal with such zealous but intolerant
champions of the Christian faith. It was not through the prophets
of wrath, but through the preachers of a more excellent way,
Swartz in the south and Carey in the north, that Christian
missions were to take root in India.

The greatest of the eighteenth century missionaries was
undoubtedly Christian Frederick Swartz, and it is perhaps worth
while to examine his life a little more closely. So little indeed was

found to say against him in the eighteenth century that it is surpris¬
ing that the twentieth has not thought it worth while to repair the
omission. Swartz was born in the Sonnunburg, Neumark, in
1726, and entered the University of Halle in 1746. There he met
Schultze, recently returned from Madras, and came under the
influence of the masterful Dr. Gotthilf Francke. Missionary
recruiting by mass suggestion was not then in vogue, and it was at
Dr. Francke’s request that Swartz became a missionary. He began
to learn Tamil, was ordained in 1749 and in the following year left
London for Tranquebar. Four months after his arrival he preached
his first Tamil sermon, and henceforward for forty-eight years Ins
life was one long round of preaching, teaching, disputing, journeying,
and shepherding his flock. There were no frequent furloughs with
enthusiastic summer conferences to attend or crowded cathedrals
to preach in in those days ; Swartz never left South India again.
In 1767 he left Tranquebar for Trichinopoly as a missionary of the
4 Honourable Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge ’,
and in 1779 he removed to Tanjore, where he stayed till his death.
This is the whole chronicle of his outward life. 108

Swartz’s work was of the most varied kind, and demanded the
most varied attainments. A German, he had first to learn Tamil;
Tranquebar required a knowledge of Danish, Trichinopoly of
English ; Portuguese was necessary for the work among the 4 black ’
Christians ; and in Tanjore his increasing contact with princes
caused him to add Persian and Urdu. In addition to this he spent
the first five years of his Indian life in reading the Hindu sacred
books in order to understand the Hindu system. His work included
the care of Indian congregations composed half of Portuguese, and

misT^y

CHAPLAINS AND MISSIONARIES

fcaste and Pariah Hindus; at Trichinopoly and Tanjore
Iso chaplain to the English garrison and conducted special
services for ' converted soldiers \ Besides this he spent much time
in itinerating, preaching and training catechists, and in his later days
he ran schools for both Malabar and English children. Caste
problems in church, disputations with Catholic priests, controversies
with Brahmins, church building, and embassies to courts were all
part of his day’s work, and through it all he remained the same
indefatigable, hopeful and humble man. Homage to holiness is
easily given in India and spiritual pride is never far behind it, but
Swartz avoided the one as easily as he gained the other. What was
his personal character ? He had a German thoroughness which
ordered his life by rule, an urbanity of temper which nothing seemed
to ruffle, and a readiness of wit which often stood him in good stead
and turned the laugh against his opponents. When preaching before
the Rajah of Tanjore he noticed that he did not understand
Persian well; at once he asked leave to speak in Tamil, and so
gained the royal ear . I0 9 To the Brahmin’s conundrum :—

Mi. Swartz, do you not think it a very bad thing to touch a
Pariah ? ’ he replied :

‘ O yes, a very bad thing.’

‘ But Mr. Swartz, what do you mean by a Pariah ? ’
f I mean a thief, a liar, a slanderer, a drunkard, an adulterer,
a proud man.’

' 0 then we are all Pariahs remarks the Brahmin. 110
At Tanjore he sat with his back to an idol under a tree.
His listeners said, * I ought not to sit so near the tree because their
Schraini was there/ I said civilly, ' Why do you speak for him ?
Let him tell me himself to go away’. 111 They laughed and came
round me.

Indeed, sometimes this readiness of repartee and this urbanity
of temper united to produce a flow of trite moralizings which must
have been very trying to his friends. He was always, we are told
oy an admiring writer, ready to point the moral of the most
trivial circumstance, and one can imagine the mixed feelings which
the prospect of a meeting with him might arouse, or the occasional
falls from the grace of good temper which a constant companion
might suffer. 112

With these traits he showed an independence of mind which
marked Kim as no mere dreaming Pietist, talking languidly beneath
trees or exchanging platitudes with Brahmins. He went freely from
place to place and never held his peace because of authority. When
at Seringapatam in 1779 on a mission from the Madras Govern¬
ment, lie preached every Sunday to the Europeans tliere. ‘ I did not

MIMSr/fj,

/ W

THE NABOBS

I might; but did it as one who in conscience was bound
to do it. We sang, preached, and prayed and no one hindered us .' ir 3
Later he refused another diplomatic mission from Lord Macartney
because he thought he had been used as a tool by Sir H. Rumbold.
The consequence of this mingled frankness and charm, sincerity and
consideration, was that he won the confidence of Indians to a degree
which the most prudent Europeans had not attained. Ten years
before the campaign against missions as dangerous to the State,
twenty years before preaching was forbidden in Calcutta, the Rajah
of Tanjore was giving Swartz a blank sheet of paper to make
terms with Hyder Ali, and confessing, ' We all, you and I, have lost
our credit. Let us try whether the inhabitants will trust Mr.
Swa rtz . #1I 4

In many ways Swartz was very modem-minded. He did not
believe, any more than he practised, the denunciatory method of
evangelism. ' Were we to address the Heathen in an angry or
cutting manner, it would be just as if we were to throw sand in a
man's eyes, and then exhort him to see with distinctness and
accuracy. But when addressing them in love and meekness or
when overhearing some evil speech we graft on it a representation
of Christianity in its loveliness, they usually listen with attention
and reflection.' 1 ^ The furthest he got on the path of ‘ righteous
indignation' as a missionary method was to write of Mohammad Ali’s
second son : ‘ He is a genuine disciple of Mahomet (that is, is inclined
to cruelty)', 116 and to report ‘ our Iquasi-Muttu read for some
time . . . out of a little book which explained the abomination of
heathenism, and after some exhortation we left them '. XI 7 He saw
the danger of the complete suppression of caste in the Christian
church as well as the disaster of its tolerance, and followed a policy
of suasion and moral pressure which was far more effective than
Schultze s earlier, or Bishop Wilson's later, peremptory suppression.
He could appreciate the good in non-Christians and non-Europeans
and wrote with admiration of Hyder All's care of orphan children. 118
He appreciated the importance of education in missionary work,
a point which Dr. Grose noticed as early as 1760 as distinguishing
Protestant from Roman Missions , XI 9 and he believed in the desir¬
ability of single missionaries, at any rate till they had learned the
language. 120

But it was the whole spirit of the man which made him unique
in the eighteenth century. His was a positive spirit, far more
concerned with the Gospel he had to preach than with the wickedness
01 the heathen. He divided people into Christians and non-
Christians rather than Christians and the lost; he explained their
errors and preached salvation instead of denouncing their horrors

hether

MIN ISTfiy

CHAPLAINS AND MISSIONARIES

^auedpreaching the judgement. His journals are a record of continual

journeys and conferences, punctuated at intervals by exclamations
such as, 'Never O Lord Jesus, may it escape my mind how much it
cost thee to redeem me/ 121 His antipathy to Islam and Hinduism
was intellectual only, and he was always able to distinguish the
heretic from the heresy ; he never talked of' ferocious and profligate
Mussulmans ' and * wicked Brahmins ' and of never meeting ' with
such contempt and disrespect from a native * who argued about the
lawfulness of putting people to death for blasphemy. 122 Who else
but he could have thus ended a controversy with a Roman priest
before a hesitating Roman Catholic lady ? * He departed, wishing

that I might become a saint, and I wished him sincerity of heart .’ I2 3
As one reads his memoirs and journals and notes his modernity
of mind and charity of spirit, the twentieth century begins to melt
into the first, and reveals something stranger and stronger than
tolerance and humanism. There is the same exhortation without
wrath, truth without dogmatism, zeal without bitterness, the same
love of all men without dissimulation. There is the same calmness
of possession, the same radiance of an inner peace, softly shining
like the moon on an August sea. If Carey is the Origen, and Martyn
the Elijah of Protestant Missions, Swartz is the Nathaniel, ‘ an
Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile'.

misT/t),

Chapter VIII

RACIAL RELATIONS

1 <

The contact of two races so dissimilar in character, in culture
and in institutions as the English and the Indian raises the problem
of the contact of cultures in its most acute form. Mutual influence
is easiest when two cultures are basically the same ; radical difference
tends either to mutual repulsion, or to absorption of one by the
other. In the case of India easy contact was made more difficult
by the institutions as well as by the character of the two peoples.
There was first the difficulty of institutions, and secondly the
difficulty of character. The Hindus were so used to foreign invasions
and the sight of alien communities settled in their midst, that they
had become perhaps the most tolerant people upon earth ; a man was
accepted as a part of India so long as he did not attempt to interfere
with others, and was indeed expected to conform to his own rather
than any other communities' customs. But the defensive and
microscopic division of society into castes, whose life was their
religion, and religion their life, at the same time made Hinduism as
socially exclusive as it was communally tolerant. Foreign com¬
munities could be amongst, but not of the Hindus. Added to
this there was the insularity of the English character, as marked in
the eighteenth century as to-day, which made the English persist
in their customs and habits of life even in most unfavourable
circumstances. Count Keyserling’s verdict on the modern English¬
man finds a clear echo in Maria Graham's description of the
nghsh at the Cape: ‘They live like the English everywhere,
as much in the manner they would do at home as circumstances
permit.' 1

Politically the English love of liberty, sharpened on the whetstone
of the struggle with the Stuarts, encountered a universal despotism ;
moralfy the still lingering puritanism met an immense and com¬
plicated polytheism , and socially their convivial habits and meat-
eating tastes, the very characteristics which in Europe would have
formed biidges of fellowship with other nations, aroused only the
disgust of the Brahmin and the bania. With the Mussulman, these
inhibitions indeed did not apply, but relations with them were
soured beforehand by the tradition of hostility and bigotry which
had descended from the days of the Crusades. Finally the contact
of peoples so dissimilar was further complicated by political factors,

126

RACIAL RELATIONS

the earlier pomp and later insignificance of the Moghul
Court. Men's opinions of each other are influenced more than they
know by irrelevant factors like power, prosperity and prestige, as
modern Japan well illustrates. Over such chasms had the bridge
of understanding to be thrown.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century the English mer¬
chants still lived in factories under the discipline of the President,
and dined at a common table. They received goods from up-country
and despatched them to Europe, but they went little abroad from
their own settlements except from one factory to another and as
occasional ambassadors to the Moghul Court. They had in con¬
sequence little social intercourse with Indians as equals ; the men
they saw were either agents like the dubashes of Madras or the
banians and shroffs of Calcutta, servants and slaves, or superiors like
an occasional Moghul governor who might visit the factory. 2 Then
the guard was turned out, a great feast was prepared, and the
Governor trod very delicately until the great man could be persuaded
to remove to a safe distance. The Company’s servants were
frequently ignorant of the country languages, and the debased
Portuguese which was the lingua franca of the coast was all that
most of them acquired ; complaints were made from time to time
of loss and inconvenience caused by the factors’ ignorance, and a
chaplain was on one occasion proposed as an envoy to the Moghul
Court because ' he was well versed in the Persian tongue ’.3 What
social intercourse there was took place, therefore, between the
Company’s servants, the dubashes and the banians. The relations
of Ananda Ranga Pillai, the dubash of Dupleix, with the French
officials show at once how far and how small a distance they went .4
He could talk familiarly with Dupleix, de Leyrit and the Councillors
and his advice was obviously valued, he could invite Dupleix to a
grand dinner with salutes of twenty-one guns between each course
and the Councillors to wedding feasts ; but it was a privilege for him
to be permitted to talk with a Councillor's wife ,5 and of the ordinary
give-and-take of social intercourse there was little or none. One
Councillor was regarded as exceptional because he always treated
Indians as equals. 6

On the west coast of India, however, conditions were different.
In Bombay the initial poverty of the island, the necessity of attract¬
ing Indian merchants, and the competition of Surat made the
Company much more dependent on Indian goodwill, and in the
Parsis the English found a race much closer to them in temperament
than either Hindus or Mohammedans. At Surat the English mer¬
chants were in the midst of a populous city under a foreign govern¬
ment, and only one among several European competitors. Here the

THE NABOBS

^ .polish were the weaker party, trading by the grace of the Moghtfl^r
r-dndians and English were on an equality, and it is not surprising to
find that there was more in the way of real intercourse here than
anywhere else. The English lived in a factory as elsewhere, it is
true, but this did not prevent them from .dining out and from
entertaining strangers. The Moghul magnates were the most
welcome guests with their common hunting and drinking tastes ;
one Governor after his first visit particularly asked to be given some
of the excellent roast kid then provided, upon which the English
President sent out for the fattest pigs which could be found, to the
great satisfaction of the Governor on his next visit .7

Even the banians of Surat, a very important community, dined
on occasion with the Europeans. The impressions of one such is
thus described by Ovington : ‘ He was strangely amaz'd and
surpriz'd at the opening of a Bottle of Bottled Drink, when he saw
it froth and fly about. The President asked him what it was struck
him with such Amazement, which was not, he told him, the sight of
the Drink flying out of the Bottle, but how such Liquor could ever
be put in \ 8

The banians were held in considerable respect by the Europeans
as astute and honest traders ,9 and friendly intercourse went to the
length of practical jokes by young factors, who pretended to shoot
birds near the banians' gardens in order to see them come out and
pray them not to take life. 10 Finally the Company's chapel was
bare of all images, in order not to offend Mussulman puritanism. 11
There is no other instance of such regard for Indian susceptibilities
by any but missionaries for many a year afterwards. Apart from
Surat, therefore, the English were quite separate in ideas as well as
in social intercourse. As far as they thought at all, they thought
of Mohammedans as profligate and of Hindus as superstitious, and
of both as quite incomprehensible. The Indians on their side
considered all Europeans in general and the English in particular
to be winebibbers. Their reputation dated from Akbar's time,
when an English adventurer in the Moghul army made his service
dependent on adequate supplies of liquor, and his demand was
admitted on the ground that Europeans must have been created at
the same time as spirits, 12 and the idea was confirmed by the
feats of Captain Hawkins at Jehangir's nightly chinking bouts.
The one thing in which the English were unique was their lack
of religious observance. The Portuguese, the French and the
Dutch all made much of their priests and ministers; the English
alone neglected them . 1 3

It was in the matter of clothes and daily life that there was
approximation between the two races. The early settlers wore

misTfi,,

RACIAL RELATIONS

coats and ' Moormen's' trousers as a matter of cow
/houses, and some occasionally wore them in public. I:
le writers of Masulipatam were express^ forbidden to lounge on
the parade on Sundays in loose coats , 1 5 but as late as 1738 a Council
meeting was held in Calcutta in loose coats with hookahs and drinks
in attendance. 16 The last reference to this practice is a government
order in the early nineteenth century prohibiting native dress in
the United Provinces. 1 ? As a full dress it never became general,
but for indoor wear it remained common throughout the century.

In thought and opinion there was separation and disapproval
without contempt. The difference between European and Hindu
outlook was too great, the prejudices of Mussulmans were too deep,
for either race to have any great attraction for the other, but there
was in it no trace of racial feeling or talk of inferiority. Francisco
Pelsaert disapproved of the extravagant waste of the Moghuls, 18
Bernier and Manucci exposed the weakness of their armies, but none
of them objected to living amongst, or even serving under, the
Moghuls. Many of Shah Jehan's artillerymen were Europeans,
whose discipline Aurangzeb peremptorily restored, x 9 and the early
embassies of the eighteenth century still show the greatest respect. 20
Even down to 1760 a European servant like Macdonald, with more
than the ordinary servant's self-respect and all his pride of race,
could work and mix familiarly with Portuguese, Parsi and Mussul¬
man servants. There was no ‘ European Third ' in the eighteenth
century. The mutual opinions of Indians and English in the early
years were largely compounded of ignorance and prejudice, but they
contained in them little trace of racial bias. Europeans and Indians
disapproved of each other's social systems, but they had not yet the
tolerant pity which comes of a sense of inborn superiority. Pride
had not yet been sanctified by science ; patriotism still meant belief
in one's own country as the best, but not the conviction that all
other countries were inevitably inferior.

When the position of the East India Company changed towards
the middle of the century, the character of racial relations changed
also. On the one hand the old merchants occupied new positions,
on the other the supply of Englishmen greatly increased, first as
soldiers and then as administrators and traders. The result was to
set in motion a double current, of increasing contact and knowledge
of Indian life, and of increasing contempt of everything Indian as
irrational, superstitious, barbaric and typical of an inferior civiliza¬
tion. The first was bred of contact with the Hindu andMussuhnan
aristocracy, the second with the servant class of the Presidency
towns ; the first was typical of the period between 1760 and the
return of Hastings in 1785 and is represented by such men as Hastings

THE NABOBS

<SL

imself, James Forbes, and Colonel Palmer with its prophet in
Sir William Jones; the second perhaps reaches its zenith in
Macaulay’s famous description of Sanskrit and Persian literature.
As the Anglo-Indian function developed from trade to empire, from
embassies to administration, the criterion of judgement swung round
from the naively patriotic belief that one’s own customs are
necessarily the best, to the equally naive idea that the strongest is
necessarily the best. But before the political change was complete
there was a period of political equality, when the East India
Company was one of the chief powers in India without yet becoming
the paramount power. The old traders had become diplomatists—
and often financiers—and had not yet been ousted by the soldier
turned empire-builder, the Dundas recruit from Scotland, or
aristocratic governors from England. There was not only oppor¬
tunity but necessity for intimate acquaintance with Indian manners
and customs, and most government officials were thrown back by
their work to a large extent on Indian society. The Indian Princes
on their side had quite ceased to regard the Company as troublesome
traders, and were displaying an increasing interest in European
methods in order to discover the secret of European success. For
the present, then, the tide of racialism was quite unperceived in the
cross-current of mutual contact and interest, and there ensued a
period of cosmopolitan intercourse. It was the Golden Age of the
adventurer and the diplomatist.

This new social intercourse was more marked with Mussulmans
and Parsis than with Hindus, owing to the caste difficulty of inter¬
dining. It had its centre at Madras, where the Nawab held his
court in the Chepauk Palace, in Bombay, where the relations of
Europeans with Parsis had long been closer than with any other
communities, and at towns like Lucknow and Murshidabad where
English residents were stationed at Indian courts.

In Madras Mohammad Ali, the Nawab of Arcot, was long the
centre of intercourse, financial as well as social. 21 While his second
son schemed to recover Tanjore, he borrowed from merchant
speculators like Paul Benfield and from members of Council; he
also kept an agent, and, it was said, several members of Parliament
in his pay in London. He was so confidently asserted to have had
a large share in the arrest and imprisonment of Lord Pigot in 1776
that a notice was issued in the hope of obtaining evidence against
the Company’s servants of ' the account of the Money said to have
been given by the Nabob for the Revolution of 1776 \ 22 This
included four lakhs of rupees to Paul Benfield, three to Sir E.
Hughes, two to Sir Robert Fletcher and similar sums to many
members of Council.

RACIAL RELATIONS

iticus thus describes his establishment: ' He keeps a ve
L court, where the English meet with every mark of attention
^ancf are often preferred to very lucrative posts about his person .’ 2 3
At that time his guard was commanded by a European captain, two
lieutenants and six cornets, with subedars and jemadars as subal¬
terns ‘ who are men of high military reputation 'A dissatisfied
group of creditors daily meet at the Nabob's. No sooner has the
sun risen than every avenue to the palace is filled with palanquins
and carriages and in the evening the same faces, the same surly
looks are to be seen again. The Nabob receives everybody with
politeness, apologizes for his want of punctuality (in paying), which
he attributes to the loss of Tanjore, and repeats the hackneyed tale
of the cruel treatment which he has received at the hands of Lord
Pigot .' 2 4 In spite of his somewhat doubtful transactions, however,
the Nawab was dignified, hospitable and of charming manners ;
and nearly every traveller who visited him was favourably impressed.
Dr. Ives expressed the general feeling when in 1754 he described
him as having 4 no other mark of distinction, but a truly majestic
countenance tempered with a great deal of pleasantness and good
nature '. 2 5 Innes Munro WTote in 1780 that he ‘ looked on a newly
arrived European with such a look of majesty, blended with sorrow,
as one could not behold without compassion and regret 7 . 26 Grattan
wrote to Hastings that he * feels a sincere reverence and affection
for him *, 2 7 and Orme, though alive to his limitations, wrote, ‘ I pity
no man on Earth so sincerely as I do this Nabob \ 28

More scrupulous and more European was the cultured Serfagi,
Rajah of Tanjore, who was educated by the missionary Swartz, in
whose memory he wrote the first example of English verse by an
Indian. He became a student of English science and literature as
well as a patron of Indian art, and was English enough in his
manners to give a banquet in the English style at his accession.

The Nawab of Arcot was only the first and most long-lived
example of such social and convivial intercourse. * Nabobs and
Soubahs throughout India,' wrote the authors of The European in
India in 1800, ' are in the habit of giving public breakfasts, and of
occasionally inviting all the European gentry in their vicinity to
grand dinners, nautches or dances, and other entertainments \ 2 9
On both sides there was much give-and-take ; the English had long
acquired a taste for iiautches, and developed new ones for elephant
fights and hookah smoking ; the nawabs on their part experimented
with English food and drink. 3 ° ‘ Many excellent Mussulmans/ say
the same authors, < are above prejudice, and often eat substantial
slices of ham under the designation of Belatty Heron or English
venison/ 3 x Salabat Jung, chief of Eliichpur and a tributary of the

THE NABOBS

., entertained the officers of several regiments to dinner
during the Maratha war and attended the dinner himself, an action
which was favourably contrasted with the conduct of Hindu and
Maratha chiefs. 3 * Before the coming of Cornwallis many Indians
were still in positions of authority in British India, and reciprocal
entertainments were common .33 After the dinner or the breakfast
there were usually entertainments, the chief being cock and elephant
fights, nautches and occasionally plays.

In the north the two chief centres of social intercourse were
the Palace of Mubarak-ad-daula, the Nawab of Bengal at Murshida-
bad, and the court of the Nawab Wazir of Oudh. Significantly
enough no memories of the Black Hole prevented European inter¬
course with the Mussulman princes ; wherever they were assured
of a luxurious and hospitable welcome they gathered like flies to
the honey-pot. The same rule applied to the ' East Indians \ at
that time segregated from English society ; ' anyone of this class/
says F. J. Shore, ' whose circumstances will allow him to give good
entertainments, will not find the English (in Bengal at least) at all
backward in partaking of them ’.34 At Murshidabad there was,
from the time that the Company ‘ stood forth as dewan ’, a resident
at the court of the faineant nawab, and Europeans in his bodyguard ;
the office of Resident was considered so lucrative that great sums
were expended in order to obtain it .35 The friends of the Resident
were entertained in the European manner by the Nawab, and amused
themselves with purdah interviews with the Begams. This went on
until Cornwallis laid the axe to the tree in 1787, and withdrew all the
officers under the suspicion of deriving ‘ unjustifiable advantages \ 3 6
A glimpse of the inner workings of the Residency is given by a
report on the ' mhatute ' tax prepared by a Select Committee in
1771. They compiled a list of illegal and recoverable disburse¬
ments totalling Rs. 636,705, and charged them to thirt} r -three names
which included those of Clive, Carnac, Verelst, Barwell and the
Resident Becher .37 Benares was another centre of social intercourse,
and until the time of Cornwallis rivalled Murshidabad in the
brilliance of its financial prospects. But the chief Mussulman
entertainer was the Nawab Wazir of Oudh, whose long contact with
and semi-independence of the British power rendered him the most
accessible and the best equipped for the task. From the time of
Shuja-ad-daula there was a constant succession of residents, troops,
adventurers and travellers coming from Calcutta to Lucknow, and
the effect of a long-continued cosmopolitanism is shown, as nowhere
else in India, by the flamboyant and exotic architecture of mixed
Moghul and classical styles. The Resident was the permanent head
of this society. The nawabs, on their part, from the time of

WNlST/fy

%5atad-daula showed a lively interest in things European. —
weru fond of giving public breakfasts, sometimes with elephant
fights to follow, and not infrequently entertained the whole European

. o mi '-rv * *_ o nrron n

RACIAL RELATIONS

llgil CO tU XUiiv Vf y j * # # <

community to dinner. 3 8 Thomas 1 wining thus describes a grand
breakfast party given by the Nawab in a tent in 1794* Besides
coffee, fish, curries, etc., the table was covered with a profusion of
sweetmeats and flowers. . . . Asiatic and European mixed
together' .39 After breakfast a' greyish 1 white elephant was exhibited
beside a very large black one. In the evening elephant rides across
country, escorted by cavalry, were arranged, quite regardless, of the
crops and the villagers. Several days were thus spent‘ in reciprocal
visits and festivities '.* 0 The third leader oi Lucknow society
was General Claud Martin ; he was nearly as Indianized as the
Nawab was Europeanized, and provided the European counterpart
to the Nawab's cosmopolitanism.

In the upper provinces further amusement was provided by the
recurrent appearance of fugitive Moghul princes like that of Shah
Alam in Allahabad from 1767 to 1770, and of his son Mohammad
Bakht in Oudh in 1784. Even the Emperor at Delhi habitually
granted interviews to every casual traveller who penetrated thitner.
In Hindustan this social intercourse reached its fullest development
with military adventurers like the Comte de Boigne, General Perron,
George Thomas and Colonel Skinner, who spent their lives in the
service of Indian courts or as independent adventurers among
Indian princes. Social intercourse was constant and unrestrained,
and the manner of life as much Indian as English.

The intercourse of Mussulmans with Europeans did not extend
to European ladies as yet. The difficulty was Indian rather than
English, for the English ladies did not share the scruples of latei
generations about mixing with men whose wives remained in purdah.
Warren Hastings related to his wife his mistake in allowing the
Nawab Wazir to see two English ladies, and his efforts to assure him
that they were by no means representative of English beaut) ,*
and Lord Valentia recorded the disgust of the Wazir s son at the
appearance of two English ladies who insisted on attending a joint
dinner at Lucknow.** In both instances the initiative came from
the English side, the moral recoil from the Indian, and in both cases
English public opinion sympathized with the Mussulman feelings.
In this particular matter the freedom of the eighteenth century
Woman went too far, but on the other hand her lack of \ ictorian
tastes and taboos removed one of the greatest obstacles to cordial
racial relations. They had no objection to the hookah,*^ and
occasionally smoked it themselves; they freely attended and
enjoyed nautches; they adopted the fashion of the turban and

THE NABOBS

ied it to London, and they used familiar Urdu terms like ‘ bit
Society at that time was predominantly masculine and the women
had perforce to accept the masculine point of view ; but the later
change in their outlook was perhaps as much due to the increasing
regard for propriety and sober deportment, the incipient spirit of
Victorianism which the Evangelical Revival fostered among the
fashionable in London and Calcutta, as to a mere increase in numbers
and a higher standard of refinement. It is one of the misfortunes
of the history of racial relations in India that as soon as Mussulman
society began to rid itself of its traditional feelings about the unveiled
woman, European society imported a fresh stock of prejudices
about the veiled woman of the purdah, the joint product of the
evangelical missionary and of new-born racial pride.

In Hindustan and Bengal the intercourse between Europeans
and Mussulmans was almost entirely with princes and nobles.
They had in a sense common trades as soldiers, as diplomatists, as
members of a governing class, and common tastes in hunting,
feasting, wine and nautches. The prestige of military success had
given every European an entry into aristocratic Indian society,
while the cancer of racial pride had not yet destroyed his enjoyment
of it. But with the merchants and bankers of Bengal there was
little intercourse at any time ; 4 5 the temperament of Bengali banians
was too antipathetic to that of English adventurers for contact ever to
advance beyond occasional formal dinners. In Bombay, however, it
was otherwise ; into the relations between English and Parsi mer¬
chants crept something of the cordiality that existed between English
and Muslim lords in Hindustan. At the beginning of the century, the
Parsis still kept their own customs. 46 In 1770 the cheerful Macdonald
was treating two Parsis in a ' Roman Catholic ' tavern ; 4 ? by this
time the Parsis had many Englishmen in their employ as ships’
captains, and social intercourse was frequent. 48 They often borrowed
carriages from the English for their weddings (' which were lent
with great good humour'), and invited them to their feasts. At
this time men and women were still segregated,-^ but by the end of
the century they had become largely Europeanized in their manners
as well as in their feasts. 5 ° Their dinners were now complete with
tables and chairs, their rooms with mirrors and prints ; and what
entitled them to even more respect, they owned' nearly all Bombay \
Much wine, ' specially Madeira \ flowed at these gatherings. They
kept their own carriages and horses now and had two or three houses
each ; their westernization was already largely complete except for
their adherence to early marriage and their failure to educate their
women. 5 1 The same social intercourse also extended to Mussulman
merchants of Bombay ; one 4 jovial, hearty fellow ’ named Chillabie,

FIGHT

r,,lf -ismn

\ ; -‘%^e through the rites of his religion to have company with the
English gentlemen and to drink wine * as early as 1772. 5 * The
difference between this and the aristocratic intercourse of the upper
provinces was that, while the one continued to develop into the
modern Bombay cosmopolitanism, the other after a brief period of
brilliance faded away into the drab hues of racial and social
exclusiveness.

With the Hindus there is not so much evidence of extensive
social intercourse. Of the Hindu princes, the Rajputs were too
distant to come into contact with the English, and the Marathas
too independent and suspicious to encourage very cordial relations.
Officers attending a durbar of the Peishwa had to remove their boots
until the nineteenth century, 53 when their wounded feelings found
vent in an arrangement by which uncovering the head was con¬
sidered an equivalent; and they generally considered the Mussulman
princes far more ' courteous and free |j than the Marathas.

But the seal of social intercourse is personal friendship, and
this, too, had its place in the life of the eighteenth century. At that
time the best of the Company’s officials were acquainted with Persian
and many of them became genuinely interested in Persian literature.
This is seen at its best in the encouragement given by Hastings to
Oriental studies ,54 in the enthusiasm of Sir William Jones, Wilkins
and Colebrooke, and in its popular and vulgarized form in the songs
first learned from the nautch girls and translated into popular
drinking songs .55 Such knowledge and such tastes gave them
common interests with the Vakils, Nawabs and Rajahs whom they
met, and intimate friendships resulted. Beneram Pandit, the Vakil
of Scindia, was intimate with Hastings, General Palmer and Chap¬
man ; Hastings in recording a meeting with him at Benares writes
of him to his wife as ‘ one whom you know I reckon among my first
friends ’. 5 6 W ith the Nawab Asaf-ad-daula of Lucknow he had
also a close friendship, though there was in it a note more of admira¬
tion of a younger for an elder than the equal relationship of scholars
which existed between him and Beneram. Nor did these friendships
cease with absence or with Hastings’ departure to England. As late
as 1802 the Nawab W T azir offered him through Palmer a pension to
tide over financial difficulties ,57 and Palmer in his periodical letters
to Hastings frequently mentions the ‘ anxious enquiries ’ of his
old Indian friends. Beneram’s brother Bissambu Pandit, Ganga
Gobind Singh, Ali Ibrahim Khan, the incorruptible judge of Benares
whom Cornwallis refused to supersede, and his son w r ere others in the
Hastings circle. Charles Turner, Chapman and Scrofton wrote
about them in the same way. FaizuJli Khan, wrote Turner in 1799,
was learning Greek from the Armenian Padre Parthenio. 5 8 In 1789

19

mis/,},,

THE NABOBS

<8L

er forwarded a letter from ' that excellent man Tufferzul
Hussain Khan f 59 who ‘ is respected and admired by all who know
him \ 6 ° Chapman wrote of ‘ my friend and fellow traveller \
Bissambu Pandit, than whom, wrote Thompson, 'none is more
sincere in his devotion \ 6x In 1801 Palmer lamented the loss ' of
that excellent man Taffazul Husain Khan and with him all that was
wise and good among the Mussulmans'. 62 This is the language of
friends and of intimates, untainted by any breath of patronage or
racial pride. They appear in private letters between intimates
where no possible motives for tact or circumlocution would operate.
All the Indians concerned, it will also be noticed, with the exception
of the Nawab Wazir, were officials or Mussulman gentry ; men of
culture, but not men of princely rank who might enjoy the free¬
masonry of aristocratic feeling. The Englishman did not yet wait
for the Indian to learn English before he would talk to him, but
learned himself Persian instead ; he did not demand a complete
' western education ' before a man could be considered completely
civilized, but enjoyed and himself composed Persian poetry.
Hastings, in public the Hastin Bahadur of pomp and occasional
high-handedness, was in private the most unassuming and friendly
of men. This is the reason that he was ' anxiously enquired for '
twenty years after he had left India for ever, and that his name
became a legend.

But as the century drew to its close, a change in the social
atmosphere gradually came about. The frequency of grand dinners
and ' reciprocal entertainments ' decreased, the formation of intimate
friendship with Indians ceased, except in obscure comers of the
country where administrators like Sir Thomas Munro or diplomatists
like Colonel Tod or land settlement officers were thrown back upon
Indian society. The higher posts of the Government were filled
with appointments from England, its designs became more imperial
and its attitude more haughty and aloof. The gulf which Mussul¬
man Nawabs and English bon viveurs, diplomatic pandits and
English scholars had for a time bridged over began ominously to
widen again. With it the attitude of the average Englishman
changed also from one of disapproval of Hindu ' superstition ' and
Mussulman ' bigotry ' or philosophic interest in Hindu mythology
and the Golden Age and the histories of Moghul glory, into one of
contempt for an inferior and conquered people. A ‘ superiority
complex ' was forming which regarded India not only as a country
whose institutions were bad and people corrupted, but one wffiich
was by its nature incapable of ever becoming any better. An
attitude of superiority requires not only that a people and its
institutions should be bad but also that they should be incapable of

RACIAL RELATIONS

jl^yement, and for this reason expressions of pity, of patronage^
‘ long-suffering understanding 7 are often more expressive of
that attitude of mind than the most full-blooded denunciations.
Many hard sayings inspired by the heat of a temporary irritation can
be forgiven, but it is the polite disdain which founds its tolerance on
the basis of necessitarianism, that rankles in the mind like a festering
sore. It is one of the ironies of Indo-European relations in India,
that the purging of the administration coincided with the widening
of the racial gulf. Cornwallis not only made a new aristocracy by
the Permanent Settlement, he also made a new governing class by
his exclusion of all Indians from the higher governmental posts.
Corruption was stamped out at the cost of equality and co-operation.
In his own mind, as in the commonly accepted view, there was a
necessary connexion between the two measures ; ' every native of
Hindustan', he said, ‘ I verily believe, is corrupt \ 6 3 As with the
land question, he found an intricate problem and honestly attempted
to solve it, and as with the land question his solution had a fallacious
simplicity which gave it an illusion of success. He thought English
corruption could be solved by reasonable salaries, and did not stop
to consider that the advantage of Indian goodwill made it at least
worth trying as a remedy for Indian corruption also. He never
thought of creating an Indian imperial bureaucracy on the model of
Akbar's mansabdars, which by special training, proper salaries and
the encouragement of equal treatment, promotion and honours,
might have been bound to the Company as the Moghul officials were
bound to the Emperor. His honesty enabled him to appreciate
single-mindedness when he found it in individuals, as in the case of
Ali Ibrahim Khan, but his knowledge of the country was not wide
enough or his insight into character deep enough to enable him to
perceive the great reservoir of loyalty and devoted service which
might have been tapped to fertilize the parched garden of Bengal
administration. So the garden was watered by thin sprays of
efficiency from small watering-cans of duty instead of by the streams
and fountains of co-operation and common ideals, until in our own
days, instead of the rose trees and lotus flowers that had been looked for,
came up stubborn cactuses of criticism and bitterness. Then as now
first-class character was no substitute for third-class brains, nor did
mnocency of intention mitigate the effect of the blunders of ignorance.

This change in the social atmosphere was subtle in its effects
and slow in its operation. The first step was the arrival of Corn¬
wallis, who came as a reformer of abuses with plenary powers, and
brought with him the view-point of the India House and Whitehall,
no previous knowledge of the country, and a lack of that imaginative
sympathy which would have made up for his ignorance. He lived

M' HISTfiy

THE NABOBS

<SL

ply and hated ostentation, but the atmosphere of the Govemor-
General’s house became inevitably more English and more olympian;
he had no close contact with Indians and did not notice their
gradually increasing estrangement. 64 As his intentions became
better known, distrust changed to respect, but the social estrange¬
ment continued unchecked. In his personal relations he was much
influenced by Sir John Shore, whose strict views made him particu¬
larly critical of Indian customs and whose great knowledge was not
allied with natural sympathy . 6 5 Measures like that of withdrawing all
Europeans except the Resident from Murshidabad, while fully justi¬
fied by the facts, 66 had the further effect of tending to separate the
two races. Finally came the limitation of the higher government ranks
to Europeans only. In 1790 the Nizamat courts with their criminal
jurisdiction were abolished, and in the Zillah courts Europeans
presided with Indian assessors. Indian magistrates were only
employed up to a monthly salary of Rs. 50. 6 ? The old princely
ceremonial was modified at the same time, no nazars were to be
presented to princes in person except to the house of Timur ; the
Shahzada was informed that the customary honours paid to Moghul

princes would not be provided if he visited Calcutta ; Sa’adat Ali of
Lucknow and the Nawab Mubarak-ad-daula on similar visits were
refused the usual royal honours, and no one was appointed to
welcome them. 68 The warmth of geniality and the punctilio of
etiquette, so essential to friendly social relations, were now lacking ;
every Indian felt that he was no longer a persona grata at the
Government House. The effect of the closing of the avenues of
official and especially legal appointments was to drive the old govern¬
ing classes into seclusion and to leave none but the clerk, the banian
and the shroff to represent Indian character and culture to the
average Englishman.

To Cornwallis succeeded Shore, whose rigid views nullified the
advantage which his knowledge of the country gave him. 6 ? With
Wellesley the process proceeded apace. He habitually adopted
towards princes like the Nawab of Arcot and the Nawab Wazir of
Oudh the tone of a hectoring schoolmaster, and could hardly be
expected to notice at all the existence of those of lesser rank. By
him Indians were excluded along with Anglo-Indians from the
regular entertainments at Government House,? 0 and even the vakils
of the country powers felt the chill wind of official olympianism.
With him the habit of speaking or writing of Indians as of some
strange order of beings unaccountable in their constitutions and
actions, to be dazzled by ostentation and to be impressed by invin¬
cible power, from being the custom of the Calcutta class of * low
European ' became the fashionable and dominant attitude.? 1

misT/ty

RACIAL RELATIONS

changed face of things was thus expressed by
a letter to Hastings which is worth quoting in full:—

But little or no attention is paid to the Vakils of the Native
Courts by Lord Wellesley. They are not permitted to pay
their respects to him oftener than two or three times a year,
which I think is as impolitic as it is ungracious. The above
mentioned gentlemen all retain the strongest attachment to
you. And indeed that sentiment is general among the
natives of my information. I observe with great concern
the system of depressing them adopted by the present govern¬
ment and imitated in the manners of almost every European.
The}' are excluded from all posts of great respectability or
emolument, and are treated in society with mortifying
hauteur and reserve. In fact they have hardly any social
intercourse with us. The functions of magistrate and judge
are performed by Europeans who know neither the laws nor
the language of the country, and witli an enormous expense
to the Company. The Head Molavv in each court, on whose
information and explanation the judges must decide, has a
salary of Rs. 50 per month. And this I believe tfne of the
most trustworthy and lucrative employments which a Native
is allowed to hold in the Company's service. What must be
the sensations of this people at our thus starving them in
their native land. 7 z

This change of feeling and attitude is confirmed from other
sources, which provide many details to illustrate the general attitude.

‘ Europeans/ wrote Captain Williamson in 1810 with twenty years'
experience of the country, ‘ have little connexion with natives of
either religion', except for business .73 No Hindus and few Mussul¬
mans would eat with Europeans ;74 they would not join the
occasional nautches, wild-beast show's or feasts to which they still
asked Europeans. Mrs. Graham, visiting Calcutta in 1810 after
living in Bombay and staying in Madras, deplored that ‘ the distance
kept up between the Europeans and the natives, both here and at
Madras, is such that I have not been able to get acquainted with
any native family as I did in Bombay. . . , This mixture of
nations ought, I think, to weaken national prejudices, but among
the English at least, the effect seems to be diametrically opposite.
Every Briton appears to pride himself on being outrageously a
John BuIT .75 Amongst the Europeans the feeling was strong that
Indians should always be subordinated to Europeans. The main¬
tenance of * prestige ' bad now become a dominant factor of policy,
and as usual in such cases, was most piously believed in by those who

miST/fy.

THE NABOBS

§L

imagery little prestige to lose.? 6 The necessity ' of upholding tb
British character ’ was now so well understood that nothing short
of absolute compulsion would actuate a magistrate to commit a
European woman on a charge for neglect of duty, mebnety, msole
or other such impropriety ’.77 In such an atmosphere there was no
room for the breath of social intercourse. As the new century
advanced, things grew worse rather than better, until the time o
Bentinck, who achieved fame by permitting Indians to drive to the
Governor-General’s house in carriages. 7 8 By that time ,,m contras
with their attitude to the feasts of Warren Hastings days, Mussulmans
considered dining with Europeans degrading. On going to a station
no Englishman thought of calling on the notables of the district,
as was once done as a matter of course; mstead certificates of
respectability were required of the notables before they could be
guaranteed a chair when they visited the officer. In the courts no
sitting accommodation whatever was provided for spectators or for
any officials of the court except the judge .79 In Calcutta many
writers expected every Indian to salute them, 0 and many, 1 is sai ,
were so ignorant of Hindustani that after several years they could

not count beyond twenty. 81 . , ,_

One of the causes of this social estrangement has already beer
given in the policy of Cornwallis towards Indian officials arid the
pose of Lord Wellesley as an empire-builder. 8 * But these, after all,
were more the symptoms of the change than the causeofi
themselves they could hardly have been decisive had ..here been

no other predisposing forces at work.

One of them is to be found in the increasing number of women
in the settlements. By another irony the same influence whic.i
improved the morals of the settlers increased the widening racial
gulf. As women went out in large numbers, they brougit wi
them their insular whims and prejudices, which no official contac
with Indians or iron compulsion of loneliness ever tempted them o
abandon. Too insular in most cases to interest themselves m alien
culture and life for its own sake, they either found society and a
house amongst their own people, or in the last resort returned singe
and disconsolate to Europe . 8 3 The average Anglo-Indian was equally
insular, and his contact had usually first been established by the
tyranny of solitude and in time sanctified by custom and traditiom
So with the advent of women in large numbers a new standar
was introduced, one set of customs and traditions died out,^
and another equally rigid and not necessarily better took its place.
A woman’s reaction to strange conditions was instinctive rather
than rational, but rationalization quickly followed. The attitude
of airy disdain and flippant contempt had the background of fear

RACIAL RELATIONS

wtgcp/a .ri unknown and incalculable environment inevitably excites
drreveryone, but above all in the ignorant and the emotional. For
the men the establishment of English homes in place of the prevalent
zenanas withdrew them still more from Indian ways of thought
and living , 8 5 and the acquisition of homes and families gave them
something to lose which they had never had before, and thus made
them the victims of the same fear. It is this which accounts for the
strange panics which from time to time agitate European com¬
munities in the east, and for their apparently unaccountable ferocity
at times of crisis. 86 This change of attitude did not pass unnoticed
at the time and is thus rather crudely described.

Every youth, who is able to maintain a wife, marries.
The conjugal pair become a bundle of English prejudices and
hate the country, the natives and everything belonging to
them. If the man has, by chance, a share of philosophy and
reflection, the woman is sure to have none. The 4 odious
blacks ’, the ‘ nasty heathen wretches ', the 4 filthy creatures '
are the shrill echoes of the ' black brutes ', the 4 black vermin '
of the husband. The children catch up this strain. I have
heard one, five years old, call the man who was taking care
of him a 4 black brute \ Not that the English generally
behave with cruelty, but they make no scruple of expressing
their anger and contempt by the most opprobrious epithets,
that the language affords. Those specially who, while young,
are thrown much among natives, become haughty, over¬
bearing and demi-Asiatic in their manners. 8 ?

This attitude fully developed is seen in the Memoirs of Mrs.
Fenton, who was in Calcutta from 1826-30. On going to see a
nautch at the house of 1 Rupe Loll Mullick * she remarks, that 4 the
natives consider it a great addition to their importance to have
European guests. The poor animal who exists on rice and ghee all
the year, contented with a mat for his bed, here may be seen playing
the liberal entertainer \ 88

Another contributory factor to this growing racial estrange¬
ment was the influence of the evangelical missionaries and chap¬
lains. While their personal relations with Indians—at any rate in
the case of the missionaries—were usually on terms of equality,
their repugnance to Hinduism and Islam and all the 4 abominations
°f heathenism * was so great, and their denunciations of them so
violent, that they propagated the idea of Indian society as irredeem¬
ably corrupt and degraded. Henry Martyn, the most violent of
them all, lived the simplest ot lives and frequently courted European
censure by mixing with Maulvis and Pandits and by such little acts

THE NABOBS &

IL

|M^alking about in the evening instead of riding and driving^
at the same time the violence of his denunciations confirmed the
Europeans in their belief that few Indians were fit to associate with
that it was a waste of time to mix with them, and that the merit of
missionaries consisted not in giving their lives to the service of India,
but in condescending so far and giving up the privileges of a gentle¬
man. The attitude of Brown who ' never permitted the heathen to
obtrude their abominations on Europeans if he could prevent it ,
of the Lutheran Kiernander by his tacit abandonment of work
amongst the Bengalis for the more congenial employment of con¬
verting the Roman Catholic Eurasians, both had the same effect.
Swartz of Tanjore and Carey of Serampore rose above this attitude,
but the one was too remote from European settlements, the other
too suspect for his anabaptism to have much influence. And even
Carey, as well as the eccentric Thomas, more than once was in
trouble with the Government for his preaching and writing.

But the principal cause was the simple though often neglected
fact of the rapid increase of the European community after 1760.
The influx was largely military, but also partly official and com¬
mercial. The soldiers consisted largely of royal troops serving in
India for a few years only with a maximum of national pride and a
minimum of desire to understand the country; the rest formed a
nucleus of an English settlement in Calcutta and Madras, which
lived its own fife, ran its own shops and newspapers, entertained
itself at balls and routs and concerts, admired or criticized itself on
the Chowringhee Road and congratulated itself at the Governor-
General's receptions. Except for the Rajahs and Nawabs who
entertained officers and who declined in social importance as they
decreased in power and political prestige, none of these oiten met
Indians except as servants or on terms of business. The social
ideal changed from a desire to live like a Nawab to a desire to make
each settlement and cantonment down to the smallest station a
replica of an English model. As the ideal and ambitions of the
majority swung from India to England (powerfully aided as already
noticed by feminine influence) there was no influence left to overcome
the natural insularity and exclusiveness of a highly self-conscious
and self-confident community. India became an unknown country
to the English inhabitants of Calcutta and Madras, and what is
unknown a natural conservatism will always condemn. So in 1827
‘ it was the extremity of bad taste to appear in anything of Indian
manufacture—neither muslin, silk, flowers nor even ornaments
however beautiful '. 9 ° The sentiment became general, which is
still sometimes expressed, ‘ How nice India would be if it wasn't for
the Indians.' Calcutta fixed its gaze on the pomp of Vauxhall and

1 ACIAL RELATIONS

ton, and it had no time to perceive the treasures which
; feet.

Racial feeling assmnes many forms. In its simplest form,
there is pure colour prejudice, the repulsion felt by the sight of a
man of strange colour. 9 1 This is a temporary feeling which dis¬
appears on further acquaintance. So in the early days Indians were
always called * blacks ' by Europeans, 9 * but this did not affect their
ordinary intercourse. But if the general condition of free inter¬
mixture is lacking, this colour sense may easily become a first barrier
to intercourse, as in fact happened in the society of the later century.
But since it depends on ignorance and novelty, it is comparatively
of little importance.

The next variety is formed of a union of colour-feeling and the
particularity which all nations have in varying degrees. Everything
foreign or new is judged from the standpoint of familiar customs
and condemned in proportion as it differs. This prejudice is strong
enough amongst those of different nations in any circumstances,
and it can therefore hardly be absent when those of different race
make contact with each other. The man who calls the French
frog-eaters and the Germans beer-swillers is likely to call the Italians
dagoes, the Mussulmans * profligates * and Hindus ‘ superstitious'.
This is specially characteristic of the uneducated, and in India it
was particularly prevalent among the soldiers. But this general
condemnation does not preclude individual intimacy, and so it was
the same men of whose conduct Hindus most complained, the ‘ low
Europeans' of the records, who adopted the Indian mode of life
most extensively and inter-married most freely .93

Beyond this instinctive level comes the stage where moral
judgements begin to be made. This is the special sphere of the half-
educated who judge one culture from the standpoint of another and
condemn it before they have ever understood it. As this reaction
is more subtle, it is proportionately more difficult to combat, since
the defects it points out are real, while the virtues which exist are
omitted or glossed over. Indeed, the more one's view is limited to
the values and standards of one's own culture; the more convinced
will one become of the defects of other cultures. This attitude was,
of course, very rife in the eighteenth century, the Hindus being
condemned for superstition, exclusiveness, pacifism and divisions,
the Mussulmans for bigotry, profligacy and intolerance.

But even such generalizations do not preclude appreciation of
and friendly relations between individuals. The next stage in race
reeling is where the individuals of a race, as well as its specific
institutions, are held to be lacking in essential virtues. Here it is
that race superiority as a doctrine and not as a blind instinct first

THE NABOBS

emerges. In the eighteenth century it was sometimes sanctified
by an exclusive type of Christianity which assumed in Christians
a virtue denied to infidels, as in the twentieth it is dignified by the
pseudo-science of writers of the type of Mr. Lothrop Stoddard under
the catchword of racial characteristics. It found expression in the
eighteenth century—more commonly at the end than at the begin¬
ning—in the description of all Hindus as effeminate and servile,
and of Mussulmans as cruel and faithless. On the other hand,
Indians returned the compliment by considering all Europeans to be
winebibbers, proud, unscrupulous and licentious.?"*

The last stage in the formation of a superiority complex is that
which not only regards a people as inferior collectively and individu¬
ally but also as one ‘ on whose nature Nurture can never stick ’.
To-day this sort of view has to seek what support it can get from
science since it can get none from religion, but it has always been
widely held under the name of ‘ practical experience ’. It is the
worst" as it is the most subtle of these forms; it breeds a hopeless
tolerance which is perhaps worse than the frank crudity of the colour
maniac, it paralyzes and discourages all effort in the victims.

All these forms were present in varying degrees in India in the
eighteenth century, but until the latter half never in so strong a
form as to segregate completely the two races. Then what Corn¬
wallis had unwittingly sown Wellesley and Lord Hastings reaped,
and the separation which was already a fact became a dogma.
Broadly speaking, race prejudice at the beginning of the century was
instinctive and disappeared with time and better acquaintance , at
the end it was doctrinal and precluded the acquaintance which
might have removed it. India settled down to a period of social
segregation and it was left for Ram Mohan Roy with his advocacy
of western reforms and Bentinck with his greater sympathy towards
India to lay the foundation of a new and better spirit.

Ml MSTfiy

Chapter IX

CONCLUSION

We have now traced the social life of the English settlements
from the tumultuous common tables of Calcutta and Madras and
the ' old, unhappy far-off days ' of Bombay to the magnificence of
Lord Wellesley, maintaining by ‘ means approaching to severity '
a splendid isolation amidst his * vulgar, ignorant, rude, familiar and
stupid ' subjects. We have watched a condition of isolation from
Indian society give place to the cosmopolitanism of the middle
century, which in turn hardened at the end into a new separation
based on an official policy of racial discrimination, a missionary and
religiose repugnance to the 4 abominations of heathenism ', and the
growth of a herd-psychology among the settlers as their numbers
increased. The simple fact, that a man will behave in one way as
an isolated individual, and in quite another as part of a crowd,
explains by itself much of the widening racial gulf at the end of the
century. We have noted that the very factors which improved the
tone of English life widened the racial gulf. Nowhere is better
illustrated the principle that 4 to make progress in one direction is
to give things up in another'. The days of corrupt Company
officials, of ill-gotten fortunes, of oppression of ryots, of zenanas and
of illicit sexual connexions, were also the days when Englishmen
were interested in Indian culture, wrote Persian verses, and fore¬
gathered with Pandits and Maulvis and Nawabs on terms of social
equality and personal friendship. The tragedy of Cornwallis, in
our view, was that in uprooting the acknowledged evils of corruption
he upset the social balance without which mutual understanding
was impossible, a tragedy which was only heightened by the loftiness
of his character and the sincerity of his intentions. Again, the
increasing number of English women in India, while it certainly
nnproved the moral tone of the settlement, by replacing the zenana,
removed one of the most potent of Indianizing influences. The
tiagedy, here again, lay not in the abolition of the zenana, a rotten
system based neither on justice nor on mutual self-respect, bat in
the growth of a herd-psychology and an intenser race-consciousness.
Aft isolated individual cannot afford, even if he wishes it, to be
a ggressively race-conscious, but a group of individuals, as soon as
they become conscious of themselves as a group, tend to glorify

145

Ml UlST/fy

THE NABOBS

<SL

mselves, if only as a defence of self-respect against other and
arger groups.

It is interesting to consider to what extent the two races
influenced each other during this period. Intellectually, it must be
admitted, there was little or no influence ; the nascent interest in
oriental things shown by Forbes and Hastings died away to be
replaced by the Macaulayesque view that they were no more than
curious relics of a barbarous past, and even in the study of Sanskrit
literature the lead soon passed from the English pioneers Wilkins,
Jones and Colebrooke to the more enthusiastic Germans. English
intellectual influence on India was similarly slight. Apart from
Serfaji of Tanjore (who was educated by Swartz) there is little sign
of the spread of English ideas before the time of Ram Mohan Roy
in the early nineteenth century, and of Hare and Duff in Calcutta
in the 'forties.

In social customs, however, more influence is discernible.
Apart from the Indian customs which the English in India actually
adopted, a number took root and spread to England itself. First
should be mentioned the cult of cleanliness. The English cult of
cleanliness is quite modern ; in the eighteenth century an Anglo-
Indian visiting another house had to give good notice if he wanted
a bath. The Hindu love of washing is one of the things which most
struck observers in the eighteenth century, and we know that the
English at first adopted the Indian method of ablution, that of
throwing pots of water over the body instead of stepping into a bath. 1
Another habit which contact with India probably encouraged was
cigar smoking. In India the cigar replaced the hookah in the early
nineteenth century, and though the cigar did not become an estab¬
lished fashion until King Edward popularized it as Prince of Wales,
the body of retired Anglo-Indians must have formed a powerful
nucleus of cigar smokers. There is also, of course, the bungalow,
borrowed direct from India, and in the less probable sphere of
clothes, the banyan, originally a loose muslin shirt worn in Bengal
which became a kind of vest, and pyjamas, which descend from the
Anglo-Indian ‘ long drawers \ In games, England owes to India
polo, whose technical terms have been taken over entire.

What was the character of the English in India ? Were they
better or w T orse than their contemporaries in England ? The
wholesale condemnation of the Anglo-Indian in the eighteenth
century will be greatly mitigated by a study of contemporary
fashionable life in England. The more the two are compared, the
more it will be seen that the one is only an exaggerated and vulgar¬
ized edition of the other, modified by climatic conditions, and lacking
the tradition and continuity of English society. Alongside Hickey's

CONCLUSION

-limoirs and descriptions of military dinners must be set the coarse¬
ness of the Georges, the drunkenness of the upper classes, and the
taste which allowed a relative of Sir Walter Scott to read aloud to
fashionable assemblies in her youth books which at the age of eighty
she could not read alone without shame. 2 There was never a
Medmenham Brotherhood in India.

In fact the English in India were much like their fashionable
contemporaries with local differences. They had not, as in England,
the solid background of an old and stable society on which to rest;
they were adventurers, passing phantoms and shadows in a land
which they only desired to get away from. Their wealth rested not
on the inalienable land, but on the shifting fortunes of despised and
often doubtful commercial transactions. They possessed the
restraints neither of traditional manners nor of taste. They com¬
bined aristocratic manners with a commercial atmosphere ; they
introduced fashion into the counting-house and commerce into the
ball-room. It was this combination of commerce with aristocratic
pretension which accounts for much of the unpopularity of the
Nabobs in England.

The Indian life, with its absence of conventional restraints,
probabfy led more frequently to disaster and early deaths than in
England. But its opportunities also caused more, as Prof. Dodwell
says, to realize to the full their possibilities ; both the percentages
of distinction and of complete failure were probably higher than in
England. The English were neither heroes, to be placed on
pedestals and worshipped, nor reprobates to be excommunicated and
ceremonially committed to literary flames. They were for the most
part ordinary men placed in unusual and unprecedented circum¬
stances. Many by the opportunities given to them became great,
more by their folly found in early graves ‘ a blanl$ in the great
Indian lottery \

m <SL

NOTES

NOTES

Chapter I

1 Founded 1620 by the Danish Company.

2 Founded 1755 and sold to the British 1845.

3 The Ostend Company was founded by Charles VI in 1722 and suspended
in 1727. Their settlement was at Bankipur on the Hugli with a station at Cove-
long on the Coromandel coast. Its special privileges were withdrawn by Charles
VI by the treaty of Seville 1729. Its settlement in Bengal was destroyed
by the Nawab in 1744. The company was revived in 1775, became bankrupt
in 1784, and was finally dissolved in 1793. A journal of the Imperial Agent
to India 1782-5 is preserved in Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 3 2 > *65* It contains
little of interest. See Hassall, The Balance of Power, pp. jo, 83, 87; Cam¬
bridge History of India, V, pp. 115-16.

4 On 5 Sept. 1698 the Company promoted by the Whig rivals of the
old monopolists was incorporated as ‘ the English Company Trading to the
East Indies Under government pressure, the two companies agreed to
unite in 1702, the fusion being completed in 1709. See Cambridge History of
India, V, pp. 98-100.

5 Capt. Alex. Hamilton, 1688-1723. Ovington (in Bombay and Surat)
1690-2. C. Loclcyer, 1702-10.

6 Hamilton, A New Account of the East Indies, II, 12.

7 Hamilton, op. cit., II, 7-14.

8 C. Lockyer, An Account of the Trade in India, 1711, p. 4

9 T. Ovington, A Voyage to Surat (ed. H. G. Rawlinson), 1689, pp. 89-90.

10 Hamilton, op. cit., I, p. 18 1.

11 Ovington, op. cit., p. 87.

12 Hamilton, op. cit., I, p. 237.

*3 Its name was changed to Georgetown in 1911.

x 4 Lockyer, op. cit., p. 24.

*5 See H. D. Love, Vestiges of Old Madras, II, pp. 516-19.

16 See Ananda Ranga Pillai, Private Diary, 10 vols., and Public Consul¬
tations volumes in the India Office.

17 The Mayor’s Court, set up by the Charter of 1687, had the power of
condemning to death in the case of Indians, with a right of appeal to the
Council. This power was not exercised in the case of Brahmins sentenced for
other than capital crimes (Love, Vestiges of Old Madras, I, p. 497). With regard
to Europeans, Salmon (Love, op. cit., I), in 1704 writes that capital offenders
were kept in dungeons until they could be sent home, and this is confirmed
by Lockyer (p. 6). In 1712, President Harrison asked for powers to deal
with European criminals ' who dayly make their brags [sir] that we have
not a power to put them to death"'. He interpreted the Charter, however,
to authorize the execution of pirates. In 1718, President Collet refused to
execute a sailor convicted of murder on the ground that he had not yet
receiv'd any Commission for trying any persons accus d of Murther, Fnacy,
an d Robbery on the High Seas * ( Public Consultations, 50. 23 June I 7 1 ®).

In 1719 a Commission for the trial of pirates was received, and Roger
Bullmore was hanged in the same year for deserting from the George
(Love, op. cit., II, p. 175).

A Mayor's Court for Calcutta was established in 1727.

x8 J. T. Wheeler, Madras in the Olden Time, II, pp. 225-7.

149

11

THE NABOBS

<SL

*9 P. Anderson, The English in Western India, p. 328.

20 C. R. Wilson, Early Annals of the English in Bengal, I, section 131.

21 Ibid., section 177, p. 275.

22 Ibid., section 178 (24 Sept. 1708).

2 3 Ibid., section 87, p. 150.

2 4 Love, op. cit., I, 697. The Mayor’s office was established by the
Charter of 1687.

2 5 Love, op. cit., I, 499. See also W. A. J. Archbold, Outlines of
Indian Constitutional History.

26 Love, op. cit., II, 31. Public Consultations, 9 July 1702.

2 7 Lockyer, op. cit., p. 22.

28 Wheeler, op. cit., Ill, 320.

2 9 Lockyer, op. cit., p. 20.

30 Hamilton, op. cit., I, p. 361.

3 1 Wheeler, op. cit., I, p. 380.

32 Home Misc. Series, 257 (Davenport to Woolley, 14 Oct. 1709).

33 Ibid., 68, pp. 45-7 (Frankland to the Directors, Jan. 28, 1726-7).

34 Bengal Despatches, No. 1, 23 Jan. 1754, paras. 80, 86.

35 The name was borrowed from the Portuguese word ‘ tope' or gun,
because they were often employed in the capacity of gunners (Hobso?i-Jobson ).

3 6 Lockyer, op. cit., pp. 14-15.

37 Lockyer, op. cit., p. 21.

3 8 Wheeler, op. cit., Ill, p. 253.

39 Ovington, op. cit., p. 234.

4 ° Wilson, op. cit., I, p. 262.

4 1 Ovington, op. cit., p. 235.

42 Hamilton, op. cit., I, p. 237 ; II, p. 7.

43 Wheeler, op. cit.. Ill, p. 35.

44 H. H. Dodwell, Nabobs of Madras, p. 112.

45 H. B. Hyde, Parochial Annals of Bengal, p. 19.

4 6 Love, op. cit., II, p. 25.

47 Lockyer, op. cit., p. 13 (1710). Estimates varied a great deal; e.g., in

1691-2 the population was estimated at 400,000 (Love, op. cit., I, p. 547,
Letter Book, vol. 9, 22 Jan. 1691-2). 1744.—It was reckoned at 250,000 in

the Company's territory (Forrest, Life of Lord Clive). 1750.—The Madras
Dialogues speak of 8,700 houses in Black Town. See also Love, op. cit., Ill,
p. 557, for a series of varying estimates.

4 8 Hamilton, op. cit., II, p. 18.

49 Love, op. cit., II, p. 64.

5 ° This estimate is given in Wheeler, Madras in the Olden time, I.

5 * Hamilton, op. cit., I, p. 237 ; II, p. 7.

52 Anderson, op. cit., I, p. 349.

53 Love, op. cit., II, p. 171. The Common Table was abolished in 1722.

54 Ibid., pp 43-4. Quoted from The Vindication of General R. Smith

(1783).

55 Ibid., II, p. 170.

5 6 Ovington, op. cit., pp. 230-2. A specimen dietary of the poorer
class is given in the Madras Dialogues {1750).

57 Love, op. cit., II, p. 1 71.

5 8 Ibid., II, p. 11. '

59 Lockyer, op. cit., p. 23.

60 Love, II, p. 171.

miST/fy

NOTES

: wine. ^

Madras Consultations, April and May 1719 (Penny, Church in Madras,
^234) ‘ which practice we apprehended to be of very dangerous con¬
sequence ; many of the young gentlemen in the company’s service being of
good families in England, who would be very much scandalized at such
marriages. *

6 3 Wheeler, op. cit., I, p. 54.

64 Ibid., I. See also European Inhabitants (Madras), III. A.

65 A Castee was a person of pure Portuguese descent.

66 A Mustee was a person of mixed Indian and Portuguese descent.

67 They formed a company of the Madras garrison.

68 See Baillie Fraser, Military Memoirs of Col. James Skinner, II, p. 159.

65 Wilson, op. cit.; Public Consultations (Calcutta), 4 Mar. 1706.

70 Lockyer, op. cit., p. 22.

71 Ibid.

72 Ibid.

73 Ovington, op. cit., p. 233.

74 Ibid., p. 229-30.

75 Hamilton, op. cit., II, pp. n-12.

76 Wheeler, op. cit., Ill, pp. 252-4.

77 Ibid., p. 353 (Public Consultations).

78 Wilson, Madras Army, I, p. 8.

79 Ovington, op. cit., pp. 232-5.

80 Lockyer, op. cit., p. 19.

81 Ibid., pp. 27-8.

82 Lockyer, op. cit., p. 16.

83 See Forrest, Life of Clive.

84 Clive's first letter home well illustrates this feeling.

85 Lockyer, p. 28. The new arrival, later called 4 a griffin ', was then
known as an * Orambarros ’.

86 By A. de Mandelslo in 1638.

87 Lockyer, op. cit., p. 23.

88 See the inventories in Public Consultations, 1700-25.

89 Lockyer, op. cit., p. 23.

90 Love, Vestiges of Old Madras , I, p. 235. See also Capt. Seton's
case, ibid., pp. 125-6.

91 General Letter from the Court to Bengal, Feb. 1728 (quoted by
C. R. Wilson, Old Fort William, I, pp. 125-6).

92 Despatch to the Court, 25 Feb. 1750 (Long, Selections, p. 23).

93 See Section on Medicine, pp. 100-104 above.

94 Manucci, Storia do Mogor (W. W. Irvine), I, p. 140.

95 According to Williamson (East India Vade Mecum, II, p. 128) whisky
Was st ^l considered * vulgar and nauseous * in 1800.

96 Lockyer, op. cit., p. 267.

97 Capt. W. Symson, A New Voyage to the East Indies (2nd edition,
P- 34 • Lockyer, op. cit., pp. 266-7, and Ovington, op. cit., pp. 142-3.

ooson-Jobson, under * arracksays the term was used for spirit distilled from
P<um sap in the south, and from cane molasses and rice in the east and north.

98 Symson, op. cit., p. 35.

99 A. de Mandelslo, Journey to Persia and the Indies, p. 13. Punch comes
r°m panj ' (Persian for 4 five '). See Hobson-Jobson (ed. 1903), Bernier's

ravels (ed. Constable, p. 441) and Evelyn's Diary, 16 Jan. 1662.

THE NABOBS

<SL

•°° Ovington, op. cit. p. 230.

^ .01 Love,"op. cit., II, p. 135. The Directors sent 100 pipes for the second

time, * finding how acceptable the Madeira wine by the King William was.

Bengal Despatches, I, 1753 - 9 , P- 13 (Long, p. 50), 300 pipes, 150 each
for Madras and Calcutta, were sent. The former was allowed to retain fifty
more if required. The Court on 23 Dec. 1762 (Long, p. 254) threatened
to discontinue the despatch unless all the wine was sold at reasonable rates,
to the company's servants.

Calcutta Proceedings, 29 Sept. 1766 (Long, p. 446) : 125 pipes of Madeira
were received. Of these thirteen were deducted for leakage and four were
sent to the west coast. The rest were distributed as follows
The Governor , 5 pipes

The Second 2 ,,

Gen. Carnac 2 „

The Councillors 1 each

2 Colonels 1

The Residents of Malda, Midna-

pore and Burdwan 1 „

3 Lieut.-Colonels 2 pipes

2 Chaplains, 11 Majors, 15
Senior Merchants and one
Chief Engineer % each

60 Captains, 8 Factors, 5

Surgeons i each

80 Writers and 200 Subalterns J „

(The excess was taken from the previous year's surplus.)

102 Sieur Luillier, A Voyage to the East Indies, p. 337 *

10 3 Dodwell, Nabobs of Aladras.

10 4 Madras Dialogues, xxviii.

10 5 Ibid., iv.

106 Ibid., xxviii.

10 7 Wheeler, Madras in the Olden Time, I, pp. 63-7 (Letter of the Rev
W. P. Warner to the Directors, 31 Jan. 1676).

108 Love, op. cit., II, p. 159 ( Public Consultations (Madras), 1719)-

10 9 Ananda Ranga Pillai, Private Diary, I, p. 243.

110 Long, Selections, p. 158 (Letter to the Court, 31 Dec. 1 75 ®)-

111 A. de Mandelslo, op. cit., p. 13.

112 Ovington, op. cit., pp. 180-2.

IX 3 Madras Dialogues, p. 29.

J. Macdonald, Travels in various Parts, p. 233.

115 Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 29, 172, p. 26.

116 G. Elers, Memoirs (1797-1803), p. 157.

ll ? India Office Records. Letter Book 16, Dispatch to Bcncoolen C Feb. 1717.
Also ibid.. Dispatch to Bencoolen 14 Mar. 1718 (quoted by P. E. Roberts,
History of British India, pp. 79-80).

118 Love, op. cit., II, p. 15 ( Public Consultations, 12-15 July 1701).

XI 9 The Governor's Tamil secretary.

120 Love, op. cit., II, p. no (Public Consultations, 26 July 1717).

121 Ibid., p. in.

122 Wheeler, Old Madras, III, pp. 23-4 (Public Consultations, 17 Aug. 1727).

I2 3 Ovington, op. cit., p. 401.

I2 * The use of betel continued quite late, as can be seen from the Bengal
Inventories, 1755-80. Manucci (op. cit., I, 62) found everyone eating pan and
was instructed in its use by an English lady. La Farello wrote about 1720 :
' Le betel est d’un grand usage, non seulement chez les indigenes mais encore

NOTES

es petits et grands, femmes et hornmes.' According to him it_

uced by the Portuguese Jadies, and a taste for it was necessary for polite

Chapter II

1 In Bengal corruption extended to the country districts— with lucrative
residentships, the exactions of gomastahs, free trade passes, etc., instead of
being confined to a single city.

« 2 e -g- see Manucci, op. cit., for English in the service of Aurungzeb. Also

otanhope, Asiaticus for service with the Nawab of Arcot. As late as 1780
desertions of officers took plac6 to Hyder Ali (W. J. Wilson, Madras Army).

3 C. R. Wilson, Early Annals of the English in Bengal, I.

4 It is only barely mentioned in the Madras and Calcutta Consultations.
Ananda Ranga Pillai, on the other hand {Diary, I, 93-5) gives a long and
circumstantial account of it.

5 Diaries of Streynsham Master, I, d. 252 (Company’s General Letter to
Agent m Ft. St. George, 24 Dec. 1675).

0 Ibid., p. 251 (1675, para. 30 and 36).

7 Ibid., p. 263 (General letter of Court to St. George, 24 Dec. 1675, para.

Letter to the Court, Dec. 1759, para. 147 (Long, Selections, p. 166).
ee Directors’ File. * Permit us to say that the diction of your letters is most
unworthy,y ourselves and us in whatever relation considered, either as masters
o servants, or gentlemen to gentlemen.’

9 Wilson, op. cit., I, p. 275 ; Bengal Consultations, 24 Sept. 1708.

10 Quoted in Dodwell, Nabobs of Madras, p. 178. ' ’’

7\ r This was provided for by the Infantry Regulations, Madras. Wilson,
Madras Army, I, p. 52 seq.

12 Cornwallis Correspondence, I, pp. 314-15 (Nov. 1787).

* 3 Cornwallis called it ‘ the good old principle of Leadenhall St. economy,
salaries and immense perquisites ’ (Cornwallis Correspondence, II,

P- ois).

., The P°werful position of the ' Commercial Resident' is vividly de.v
noed by Hunter in his Annals of Rural Bengal.

15 The Sepoy army also then began as a body of regular troops.

1 Dodwell, Nabobs of Madras, ch. VI. Also ch. I (above).

T 17 *?•£• the case of Ensign Gardner (Wheeler, Madras in the Olden Time,
' x8* * a * so the Case of Capt. Seton (Love, op. cit., II, pp. 35-8).

Cornwallis Correspondence , I, pp. 311, 402.
n X ? though Albuquerque (Hunter, History of British India) set the first
In ,v aent fordrilling Indian troops, the practice had long been forgotten.
/■' « e ea ,^V English settlements the only coloured troops were Topasses and
ees (Madagascans). The armed peons were undisciplined.
rur , Madras Consultations, 22 Dec. 1740 (vol. 70 Madras Records). Select
Anc+£ S e< ^‘ dodwell, pp. 42-6; Officials were 51, Non-officials 118.

c ; tT . , er hst [European Inhabitants, Madras, vol. 3A) gives a list of 143 non-

Hr . _ a * n m ^ s - The lists have a general resemblance though the numbers
do not exactly tally. b

21 See ch. I, pp. 21-2.

Madras Army, I, gives examples of Indian officers
dent command. 0 ^ om P an y *°r S°°d service. They occasionally held indepen-

23 Wilson, op. cit., I, p. 48.

Ibid., p. 61.

V

\

THE NABOBS

2 5 Return of Troops, 12 Dec. 1758, Sundry Book 1758-9 {Madras Rec.,
p. 109).

26 Wilson, op. cit., I, p. 281.

27 Tnd. Off. Rec., Madras European Inhab., 3A (1777).

28 S. C. Hill, List of Europeans, etc., Introduction.

2 9 Broome, Bengal Army, appx. Q.

3 ° Wilson, op. cit., I, p. 142.

3 1 Innes Munro, Narrative of Military Operations, etc., p. 23.

3 2 Wilson, op. cit., I, p. 235.

33 Innes Munro, op. cit., p. 23.

34 Wilson, op. cit., I, p. 58. Regulations of 1748, par. 22; Orme MSS.
288, 66, p. 203 ; for Clive's Contracts, 287, 106, p. 395 (Hill, Catalogue, II,
p. 223). Also Forrest, Life of Lord Clive, I, p. 262, Jan. 1756.

35 Wilson, op. cit., I, p. 55. Regulations for military at Ft. St. David,
1747, arts. 12, 13, 15.

3 6 Ibid., p. 360.

37 R. Orme, Military Transactions in Hindustan (ed. 1803), 1, pp. 98-9.

3 8 The 64th, 79th, 84th, 89th, 96th, 103rd.

39 Penny, Church in Madras, I, p. 350.

4 ° Wilson, op. cit., II, p. 167.

4 * "Wilson, op. cit., II, p. 169 (74th, 75th, 76th, 77th Regts.).

4 2 Elers, Memoirs, p. 178.

43 Namier, Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III.

44 J. M. Holtzmann, The Nabobs in England. See also William Hickey
on Barwell. There was also of course, the natural tendency of the eighteenth
century for the successful merchant to become a landed gentleman.

45 J. Forbes, Oriental Memoirs — see his life at Broach. See also Teign-
mouth. Life and Correspondence of Sir John Shore.

4 6 Forrest, Clive, II, pp. 225-8.

47 Letter of Vansittart to Johnstone, etc. at Monghyr, 15 Dec. 1762
(Long, Selections, 1747-67, p. 302). This practice was known as ‘ barja '
and ' kishaunt '.

4 8 Dodwell, Dupleix and Clive, and the Bengal Despatches, 17 May 1764,
paras. 31, 33, 36, 38. Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 29,132, Letters of Hastings and
Vansittart, Nov. 1764, para. 14.

49 For details of this, see Monckton Jones, Warren Hastings in Bengal —
see also Long, op. cit., pp. 472-3 (1772-4).

5 ° See India Office Records, Europeans in India (quoted in ch. Ill, below).

5 1 Home Miscellaneous Series, 765, p. 153, Topham to Burlington,
22 Sept. 1765.

5 2 Described in chaps. Ill and V below.

53 Bernier’s Travels, ed. cit., p. 260. ‘ On my first arrival it stunned

me so as to be insupportable : but such is the power of habit that this same
noise is now heard by me with pleasure ; in the night particularly, when in bed
and afar, on my terrace this music sounds in my ears as solemn grand and
melodious.'

54 e.g. in public processions, see chap. I, above.

55 de Pag6, Travels round the World, II, p. 18.

5 6 D. Campbell, Journey Overland to India (1781-4). Ill, p. 124.

57 Major J. Blakiston, Twelve Years Military Adventures in Hindustan,
1802-14, P* 257. He considered that only one Indian song had any music in
it—Ohandah *s song from Hyderabad—called after a dancer of that name. This

NOTES

<§L

was^uly harmonized by the master of the band of the 33rd Regiment. A few
figs of the nautch girls did become popular ; translations of some are given
in Carey, Good Old Days oj the Hon. John Company, I.

58 Love, op. cit., II, p. 432.

59 Williamson, East India Vade Mecum, II, p. 122. By 1800 punch
was given up except by the lowest classes. ' A certain odium attaches to all
who are in the habit of drinking spirits, whether raw or diluted.'

60 Teignmouth, Life of Lord Teignmouth —Letter to Bury Hutchinson,
20 Nov. 1775, I, p. 58.

61 See below. The nautch continued as an occasional spectacle but not
as a daily amusement.

62 D'Oyley, Williamson and Blagdon, The European in India, Plate XV .

68 W. LI. Hart, Old Calcutta, p. 28.

64 See H. E. Busteed, Echoes of Old Calcutta, for an account of its career.

6 f Thos. Daniel's Oriental Scenery, show this type well; it can still be
seen in surviving houses of the period in Calcutta and elsewhere.

66 T. Lccky, History of England in the Eighteenth Century. It is a minor
irony of Indian history that just at the time when we were coming into contact
with the Moghuls, the formal French style of Le Notre, which would have
found natural affinities with the Moghul, gave way to the ideals of the
‘ wilderness ’ and ‘ unrestricted nature

67 Hunter, Journal, p. 72 (1875).

68 Mrs. Fenton, Journal (1826).

69 Mrs. N. E. Kindersley, Letters (1754), p. 231.

70 Ibid.

71 Hart, Old Calcutta, p. 47.

72 Memoirs of Asiaticus, p. 39.

73 J. Cordiner, A Voyage to India, p. 120.

74 W. Tennant, Indian Recreations, I, p. 56.

7 5 Private Journal of the Marquess Hastings (1814), I, pp. 145-6*

76 Mrs. Fenton, op. cit., p. 243.

77 De Jacquemmont, Letters from India, I, 1830, p. 204. Ladies, though
less enthusiastic than men, tolerated or attended them. See Cordiner 1794,
Mrs. Graham 1810, Lady Nugent 1812.

78 D’Oyley, The European in India, letterpress to Plate XV.

79 Elers, Memoirs, p. 74 ; Hunter, Journal (1785), p. 72.

80 India Office Factory" Miscellaneous Series, 23, pp. 24, 44, 51, 73 seq.,

loo.

8x Goldbume, Hartly House, p. 19, seq. ; Memoirs of Asiaticus, p. 46 seq.

82 Hickey, Memoirs, II, 1778, p. 136.

83 Memoirs of Asiaticus, pp. 46-7.

84 Williamson, East India Vade Mecum, I, p. 413 ; D’Oyley, European in
India, Plate XIV.

8 5 Despatch of Directors to Bengal, 17 Mar. 1769, para. 44, complained
that the Company’s servants neglected trade * that most honest way of making
fortunes ’ and made profits by contracts instead.

86 Teignmouth, Memoirs, I, p. 24.

87 Letters of Clive to Court, 22 Aug. 1757, Long, Selections, p. 113.
Later this seems to have been remedied. See Rennell, Diary, 1765* Home
Miscellaneous Series, 765, p. 158.

88 Bengal Desp., 1753-9, 11 Feb. 1756, para 92 {Home Miscellaneous
Series ).

89 Letter of Clive to the Court, 24 Mar. 1766, Forrest, Clive, II, p. 308.

90 Calcutta Proceedings, 16 May 1765, Long, Selections, p. 317.

WHISTS

THE NABOBS

<SL

Teignmouth, op. cit. (Letter to Bury Hutchinson, 20 Nov. 1775).

92 Col. Champion’s Diary, 18 Dec. 1765 {Home Miscellaneous Series,
198, p. 294). The Colonel’s grammar is his own. A few punctuation
marks have been added to make the passage intelligible, but the spelling and
the tenses are the Colonel’s.

93 Rennell, Journal, 1 April 1762, p. 132 {Home Miscellaneous Series, 765).

94 Nearly all civil servants acquired ^6-8,000 in six or seven years, and
with favourable trade opportunities ^30,000 or ^40,000 was possible—ibid.,

p. 203.

95 Ibid., 1764, p. 138.

9 6 Ibid, p. 186.

97 Ibid., p. 192.

9 8 Ibid., p. 221.

99 Ibid., 1 July 1768, p. 186.

100 The Supreme Court, set up by the Regulating Act of 1773.

101 Bengal Past and Present, II, p. 475, Memoir of Col. Pearse (Letter of
Pearse to Admiral Mann, 4 Apr. 1779). The points which distressed Pearse
were the Court’s interference to protect servants from maltreatment and their
refusal of trial by jury to the European community. A deputation was sent
to England in which Mrs. Fay's husband was concerned. See also Busteed,
Echoes of Olcl Calcutta, chapter on Hickey's Journal. Another example
of a new arrival's refusal to adopt Anglo-Indian fashions, which illustrates the
same process, is William Hickey's attitude to the hookah. In ethics and
morality the same process began with the arrival of the Evangelical chaplains.

Chapter III

1 There are many descriptions of voyages. Those of Hickey and Mac¬

donald are among the more interesting. An authoritative account of the
voyage is provided by Williamson in his East India Vade Mecum, I,
PP- 1 - 50 - * .... J ^

2 Innes Munro, Narrative of Military Operations on the Coromandel Coast
in 1780, p. 18.

3 Ibid., p. 19.

4 Lady Nugent, Journal of a Residence in India, I, p. 82.

5 Mrs. Fay, Letters from India, pp. 163-4; T. Twining, Travels in India,
PP- 5 l ~ 3 > J- Johnson, Oriental Voyages, p. 70.

6 Williamson, op. cit., I, p. 161 seq. ; Blakiston, Twelve Years Military
Adventures in Hindustan, I, p. 34.

y The Madras Courier, 21 July 1790.

8 Williamson, in his East India Vade Mecum, has given the most
detailed description of houses.

9 Hobson-Jobson (ed. cit.) ; the word was used by the first Portuguese
traveller to India — 4 Roteiro de Viagem de Vasco da Gama' (2nd edition,
1861, p. 62).

10 Williamson, op. cit., II, p. 203.

11 Ibid., p. 23.

12 Innes Munro, op. cit., p. 59; Cordiner, A Voyage to India, 1794* P- 96;
Blakiston, op. cit., II, p. 274 ; Graham, Journal of a Residence in India,
pp. 130-1.

x 3 Williamson, op. cit., II, pp. 110-112, gives a concise account of
the change. There are many other scattered references.

Ml MSTfiy

NOTES

emoirs of A siaticus, p. 121.

.. Love, op. cit., p. 180. A concise account of the debt is given by P. E.
Roberts m his India wider Wellesley.

1(3 See, e.g. the opinion of Ives (A Voyage to India, 1754, pp. 70-2).

17 Memoirs of A siaticus, p. 32.

^ 16 See the opinions of Sir John Shore, Teignmoiith , Life of Lord Tcigmnouth,
-> P- 359 and Captain Elers, Memoirs, p. 64. (Love, op. cit., Ill, p. 527, con¬
tains press notices of his death.)

19 I lines Munro, op. cit., p. 62.

*° Hickey, Memoirs, II, p. 120 ; de Grandpr6, Voyage in the Indian
cean and to Bengal, pp. 136-7 ; Twining, op. cit., p. 73 (a good description) ;
Llers, Memoirs, p. 156 (also good) ; etc.

21 C. Cossigny, Voyage au Bengalen, 1789, p. 28.

~ 2 Long, Selections, p. 317 (Calc. Progs., 16 May 1765).
f -^Most of the details of the Calcutta houses and servants have been taken
rom Captain Thomas Williamson’s East India Vade Mecum which, published
m i^io and based on over twenty years’ experience of Indian life, is authori¬
tative for this period.

24 Williamson, op. cit., II, p. 9.

2 5 Williamson, op. cit., I, p. 514 ; II, pp. 34-50.

26 Graham, op. cit.

* 7 Peignmouth, Life of Lord Teignmouth, I, p. 24. In 1769 ' only two
r three houses with Venetian blinds ’ existed. Williamson (op. cit., II, p. 17)
says that ‘ all ' houses had them by 1800.

W. H. Carey, Good Old Days of the Hon. John Company, I, p. 11. See
also Busteed, Echoes of Old Calcutta.

29 Hickey, op. cit., II, p. 268.

30 H. Pearson, Memoirs of Buchanan, I, p. 217.

31 Williamson, op. cit., T, pp. 264-5.

32 Ibid., II, p. 25 o.

33 Madras Dialogues, p. 27.

34 Williamson, op. cit., II, p. 265.

hnVf 5 ^i rS ’ ? ay ' °P*. cit *' PP* 180-1 • For complaints of servants and the
' °I keeping banians, see p. 182. She mentions writers who drove four-
n-nanos two months after their arrival.

3 ^ Williamson, op. cit., I, p. 86, scq. all this section.

37 Ibid., p. 198.

38 Ibid., p. 195.

39 Ibid., p. 219.

40 Ibid., p. 212.

41 Hobson-Jobson
karani \

(ed. 1903, p. 273) derives the word from the Hindi

42 The contemporary spelling is given to all these names.

* h'ip>y^ ^ amson ' °P* C1 t., I* P* 2 74 - H e was also called the * nye * or

44 See the advertisements in the Calcutta papers,
o , 4 * '~* ar L Oty Calcutta, p. 20. See also Bengal Past and Present (article by
yea Hussain), II, p. 270 seq., and Archbold, Outlines of Indian Constitutional
follows’ ^ I0 ^ ste P s ln the abolition of the slave trade wore as

(fl) 1789. Their export was forbidden by proclamation.
y 3 ) *811. Their import from Arabia was forbidden.

( c ) . i82 4 - Engaging in the slave trade was made piracy with the
penalty of death (with certain exceptions).

Ml NIST/fy

THE NABOBS

<SL

(d) 1831. Crown slaves were emancipated.

(e) 1833. Slavery was abolished with effect from 1845.

4 6 Williamson, op. cit., I, p. 334.

47 Ibid., I, p. 335.

4 8 ‘ The houcca is a machine from which the smoke of tobacco
and aromatics is inhaled, through a tube of several feet or even yards in
length, it is called a snake. To show the deference or indulgence shown by
ladies to the practice of smoking, we need but transcribe a card for the Gover¬
nor-General's and his lady's concert and supper—Mr. and Mrs. Hastings

present their compliments to Mr.-and request the favour of his company

to a concert and supper on Thursday next, at Mrs. H'-s house in town.

The concert to begin at 8 o'clock. Mr.-is requested to bring no servants

except his houcca-burdar.' (1 October 1779-)

49 Macintosh, Travels, 1777-1781, II, pp. 214-219. Dr. Busteed calls
this' a trumpery book of travelBut the author was in India for some
months and the book has, therefore, a social value. The picture is correct
in the main, but allowance must be made for exaggerations in order to secure
sensational and picturesque effect. It must not be imagined that all Anglo-
Indians adopted this mode of life; many of the highest like Hastings, Corn¬
wallis, Macartney and Shore were hard workers and lived simple lives. But
books like Hickey's Memoirs, Williamson's Vade Mecitm, and D'Oyley's
European in India, after allowing for exaggerations, corroborate this as a general
picture. The version printed by Carey, Good Old Days of the Hon. John
Company (ed. 1906, I, pp. 90-2) is accurate except for the omission of the last
sentence but one.

5 ° J. Kaye, Life of Lord Metcalfe, I, pp. 35-6.

5 1 At that time most parties were bachelors' parties.

32 Mrs. Fay, Letters from India, pp. 189-90.

53 Forrest, Life of Clive. «

54 Rennell's MS Journal in the India Office ( Home Miscellaneous Series,
No. 76).

55 F. J. Shore, Notes on Indian Affairs, I, p. 106.

5 6 Wilson, Madras Army I, p. 70. On the arrival of the 39th Regt.
in 1754, King's officers were given precedence over Company's officers of
equal rank. This distinction continued till 1788.

57 Ibid., I, p. 233. General Orders laid down that the command of
sepoys was 4 a service equally honourable and essential with the command of
Europeans' (Jan. 1766).

5 8 See Chapter V, below.

59 See, e.g. Aliph Cheem, Lays of Ind ', etc.

60 India Office Records, Europeans in India Series, XXV .

61 J. Page, Swartz of Tanjore, p. 51.

62 Serampore Letters , 15 Feb. 1794* P- 4 1 -

6 3 Dubois, Letters on the State of Christianity in India, p. 17.

64 Page, op. cit., p. 17.

6 5 Ibid.

66 Ibid.

6 7 Europeans in India Series. The pages of these volumes arc unnum¬
bered.

65 Long, Selections (Clive to the Select Committee, 16 Jan. 1767), p. 5 * 5 -

69 Europeans in India (J. Price to the Secretary of the Government,
23 April 1789), 25.

7 ° Ibid. (Case of Richard and John Johnson.)

7 * Ibid. (Case of Michael Macnamara.)

7 3 Europeans in India , year 1799*

WNisr/fy

NOTES

\% ' -^ 3 yThis was the Governor-General's comment to the Directors : * Tfl _

^estg kiishmcnt of a number of Europeans of both sexes of the most abandoned
principles and depraved manners throughout the company’s territories, must
necessarily affect the morals of the Lower Orders of British Subjects, diminish
that respect for the National character which is of such essential importance
to maintain among our Native subjects, and furnish ready and dangerous
instruments for the Domestic and Foreign enemies of the British Government.’

74 In this section the word Anglo-Indian is used in its original connotation,
i.e. an Englishman temporarily resident in India. The term * Eurasian *
is used as being more comprehensive, and including those of Portuguese and
French as well as of English descent.

75 Mandelslo, Journey , p. 82. There is no medical authority for this
statement.

76 Sieur Luilher, op. cit., p. 256.

77 J. Richter, History of Missions in India, p. 10S.

78 de Grandpr< 5 , Voyage to Bengal, p. 167.

7,5 Blakiston, Twelve Years Military Adventures in Hindustan, I, p. 270.

80 de Grandpr6, op. cit., p. 71.

81 Dubois, Letters on the State of Christianity in India, pp. 75-6.

82 Love, Vestiges (Report of Surgeon Wilson), III, p. 18 1.

83 Ibid., Ill, pp. 1-9.

84 Penny, Church in Madras, I, p. 507; S.P.C.K. Report for 1784.

85 Williams, Serampore Letters, 11, 1801, p. 67.

86 Dubois, op. cit., p. 78. Writers were singularly unanimous on this
class of Eurasians.

87 Innes Munro, op. cit., pp 50-si. This remark would include boys
from the West Indies.

88 Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 29,178, 6 July 1802 (Palmer to Warren Hastings).

89 Ibid.

90 Innes Munro, op. cit., p. 71.

91 India Gazette, 31 May 1792.

92 Williamson, op. cit., I, p. 460. The rate was : —

A Subaltern and Assistant Surgeon Rs 3 a month.

A Captain and Surgeon ,, 6 ,,

A Major „ 9 „ „

93 Williamson, op. cit., I, p. 439.

t<4 Blakiston, op. cit., I, p. 270. The tendency was helped by the
custom of employing old soldiers as storekeepers of forts.

95 Tennant, Indian Recreations, I, pp. 69-73. * Marriages with officers

were unpopular because the parties were often excluded from society. But
^ the girls were unfitted by education for marriage with boys of their own
class, they often became officers' mistresses.’ Also ibid., p. 52. * Any Asiatic
Dlood will not suit persons of rank.’ * It is very strange the prejudice existing
nere against haif-castes '—Mrs. Fenton, op. cit., p. 3S (1826). ‘Portuguese
^-s, a few Moorish and Pariah women and those who have lost caste fall to
^J , °P eari soidiers as temporary wives.’ Innes Munro, op. cit., p. 49 (17S0).

tners were supported by civilians and officers as their mistresses. No
-urasian ladies were invited to Government assemblies. Ayahs w^cre often
^rasians or Portuguese, of whom * many became house-keepers to single
gentlemen ’ —Williamson, op. cit., I, pp. 337, 454.

96 Fifteen Years in India, p. 75.

97 Carey, Good Old Days of the Hon. John Company.

98 F. J. Shore, op. cit., I, p. 164.

99 Ibid., p. tio.

to ° e.g. Mrs. Graham, Journal, p. 128.

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Sy 101 Valentia, Travels, I, p. 241
IC3 Ibid.

of fuTdros,SirnY; Memo iZ' X b p - I73 ' for a list of toasts and a description
01 lull dress worn at one of the dinners malgre the heat p

104 Ibid " n , P- *73 ( 1775 - 8 2).

10 5 Ibid., II, pp. 135-6. Also Williamson, op. cit., II, p. 127.

10 Curzon British Government in India, I, p. 204 He describes the
ceremonies with obvious enjoyment. P 4 describes the

IZ o e S- ?' S rier ' Utters ° f Warren Hastings to his Wife, for his daily life.

to Hastings, 16 Feb. 1787 (Add. MSS. 29,170, p. 374).

209 Wilhamson, op. cit., II, p. 127.

110 Hickey, op. cit.. Ill, p. 306.

111 Turner to Hastings, 19 Sept. 1786 (Add. MSS. 29,170, p. 211).

112 Ibid. - xr j

IJ 3 Palmer to Hastings, 18 Feb. 1787 (ibid., p. 381).

114 Cornwallis Correspondence, I, p. 422.

15 Teignmouth, Life of Lord Teignmouth.

Zl • Ra “' the &ijfin, p. 149. See also Wellesley, Life.

18 Nov iloitk S o 6C , aIso W eUesley to Lord Grenville,
'so ^iea? , MS f' Sff P- 38 i). He considers Calcutta Society

, ul Sf r ignorant, rude, familiar and stupid as to be dismistine and

goodTo a okfng.’ eSPeC 7 thC Iadi6S ’ DOt ° De ° f Wh0m ' b >" the -by is even decentty

Chapter IV

1 S. M. Edwardes, Rise of Bombay, p. 163.

A. Parsons, Travels in Asia and Africa (1774), pp. 251, 260.

3 Edwardes, op. cit., p. 169. It was estimated in 1780 at 1 13,000.
w,tJ/f?° nS ' cit *\ P \ 2 4 6 ' said that large ships could not pass the bar

over thlhar^ q u ^ oade ^- At hi S h tide there was fifteen feet of water
over the bar. bee also dePagd, Travels Round the World (1767-1771) II d 26

5 Edwardes, op. cit., p. 118. '

6 Cambridge History of India, V, pp. 113-14.

7 fhe Treaty of Salbai, May 1782.

8 Edwardes, op. cit., p. 225.

9 Captain Fryer mentions a Parsi Tower of Silence in 1675.

10 Valentia, op. cit., II, p. 187.

11 Ovington, op. cit., p. 87.

tion J ° Urnal °* Travels i0 Arab ™ and the East (French transla-

, r> 13 ? h f * ^ ac hshaw ' hsh which Hamilton mentions was probably the
Bunnelo fish, which is still used for the purpose, and which when dried,
fhe famous Bombay Duck \ Col. Yule in Hobson-fobson fails to
? uc ^ sl J aw suggests that it may be derived from the

Hindustani and Marathi bachcha the young of any creature. This con-
Mcc° n 13 stren g tb ened hy p yhe (Journal of a Voyage to East Indies, 1745, Add.

oPnnn^n 3 /;^' ‘the pernicious custom of Buckshawing

or Dunging the Trees with Bombaloo " fish \

14 Hamilton, op. cit., I, p. 181.

15 Bombay Letters, I, p. 17, Aug. 1722, para. 23.

MIN/Sr^

NOTES

f^Fbid., 20 April 1708, paras. 60-62, 65, 67 (p. 217 of Bruce, Collections
fiats. Home Misc. Series, 46).

17 Ibid., 13 Feb. 1709-10 (ibid., p. 340).

18 Ibid., 17 Aug. 1722, para. 23.

19 Ibid., 8 Nov. 1723, para. 107.

20 Grose, A Voyage to the East Indies, I, p. 33.

21 Some or all of these arc given by Capt. Fryer (1675), Mandelclo (1669),
Ovington (1689), Grose (1750-64), Rennell (1761), Valentia (1803), and Mrs.
Graham (1809).

22 Grose, op. cit., I, p. 33.

23 Valentia, op. cit., II, p. 182.

24 Ovington, op. cit., p. 204.

25 Valentia, op. cit., II, p. 183.

26 For the early troubles, see Firoz Malabari, Bombay in the Making
and Sir W. Hunter, History of British India.

27 Edwardes, op. cit., p. 97.

28 Ibid., p. 120 (The Rev. R. Cobbe’s estimate).

29 Ibid., p. 140.

3 ° Hamilton, op. cit., I, p. 287.

3 1 Home Misc. Series, 332, Boone to Woolley, 22 Jan. 1718.

32 Ibid. Papers relating to Sir N. Waite’s arrest, p. 45.

33 Aislabie was the second who eventually arrested him.

34 Ibid., p. 129.

35 Ibid., p. 132.

36 P. Anderson, The English in Western India, p. 337.

37 Boone’s acting predecessor in office.

38 Home Misc. Series, 332, p. 306. Boone to Woolley, 12 Jan. 1715.

39 Ibid. Boone to Woolley, 5 Mar. 1715-16.

4 ° Ibid., Boone to Woolley, 20 Mar. 1715-16.

4 1 Ovington, op. cit., p. 87.

4 2 Home Misc. Series, 332, p. 234. Strutt to Woolley, 13 Jan- I 7 I 5 *
See also' Bombay Letters Received, I, 29 Jan. 1722-3, para. 99, and Phipps to
Woolley, 31 May 1714 ( Home Misc. Series, 332, pp. 241-2).

43 Home Misc. Series, 332. Boone to Woolley, 12 Jan. 1715.

44 Ibid., p. 571. Representation of the Maratha Invasion of Portuguese
Territory and the State of Bombay relating thereto, para. 42.

45 Add. MSS. 29,178, p. 279. Palmer to Hastings, 10 Oct. 1802.

46 Home Misc. Series, 41, p. 62. Duncan to Ross, 2 June 1797*

47 Niebuhr, op. cit., II, p. 3.

48 J. Forbes, Oriental Memoirs, I, p. 151.

49 Mrs. Maria Graham, Journal of a Residence in India, p. 23.

50 Forbes, op. cit., I, p. 151.

51 Niebuhr, Forbes and Valentia, who all were acquainted with Madras,
noticed the contrast; Ovington, Parsons and Rennell, who were not, called
them handsome, etc.

52 Niebuhr, op. cit., I, p. 3,

53 Valentia, op. cit., II, p. 183.

54 Grose, op. cit., I, p. 52.

55 Niebuhr, op. cit., p. 3.

36 Forbes, op. cit., I, pp. 155-6;

Travels, pp. 187, 214.

57 Edwardes, Op. cit., p. 208.

Niebuhr, op cit., p. 37 * Macdonald,

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5 8 Macdonald, op. cit., p. 271.

59 Ibid., p. 214, and Mrs. Graham, op. cit., p. 30.

60 Home Misc. Series, 765, p. 104, 20 Apr. 1761.

61 Le Couteur, Letters from India (1790), p. 103.

62 Macdonald, op. cit., pp. 188-9.

6 3 Ives, Voyage to India (1745), p. 34. In 1774 they were still used by
the Chief of Surat (Parsons, Travels, p. 254).

6 4 Mrs. Graham, op. cit., p. 4.

6 5 Cordiner, op. cit., p. 63. In 1798 carts were drawn either by oxen

or horses.

66 Except the ‘ Pariah ' Christians who became Portuguese by putting
on a ' Christian hat ' or as many European clothes as*they could afford.

6 7 Parsons, op. cit., p. 261.

68 Ibid., p. 215. Parsons was ‘ bred to the navy ’ and his opinion is there¬
fore the more valuable.

6 9 Mrs. Graham, op. cit., p. 42.

7 ° Bombay Despatches, IV (Court to Bombay, 7 Apr. 1772, para. 2), p. 374.

71 Ibid., 5 Apr. 1776, para. 45, p. 936.

72 Mrs. Graham, op. cit., p. 42.

73 Home Misc. Series, 332, p. 571 (Representation on the State of
Bombay, 1737, para. 47).

74 Ives, op. cit., p. 31.

75 Home Misc. Series, 765, p. no (Major Rennell's Diary, 28 Aug.
1761).

Parsons, op. cit., pp. 216-17.

77 Mrs. Graham, op. cit., p. 2.

7 8 Forbes, op. cit., I, p. 151.

79 Mrs. Graham, op. cit., p. 10.

80 Edwardes, op. cit., p. 231. The lighthouse was built in 1772.

81 Mrs. Graham, op. cit., p. 8.

82 Parsons, op. cit., p. 217.

8 3 Macdonald, op. cit., p. 192 seq. A letter to Hastings (8 Nov. 1786)
mentions a man who applied for permission to go there from Bengal (add. MSS.
29,170).

8 4 Niebuhr, op. cit., p. 5.

8 5 Strength of forces in 1737 (Edwardes, op. cit., p. 144).

European soldiers 449 There were thus 748

,, sailors 299 Europeans, while another

Topasses 817 115 were stationed at

Sepoys 943 Mocha.

1764. Niebuhr, op. cit:, II, p. 4, says there were seventeen companies of
infantry and three of artillery composed of Europeans and some Topasses.
Each company had 100-120 men. There were also 300 sepoys in Indian dress.
The army was very cosmopolitan. In it Niebuhr found a Livonian, a Pole,
some Swiss, Dutch. Swedes and Germans. The fate of the officers was various.
Some were killed in the wars, some behaved as if in Europe and died quickly,
some became merchants, a few returned to England with a fortune, and others
disgruntled because they could not easily make one.

1767. Bombay Despatches, 4, p. 753, 12 Apr. 1755, para. 30 speaks of
1,639 European Infantry and 322 artillerymen.

1775. Ibid., p. 749, para 28, a reduction to 1,200 infantry and 312
artillery was ordered.

8 $ So called by J. Macdonald.

mist#,.

NOTES

ifhese details are taken from the European Inhabitants series
V.

88 Thus Innes Munro (op. cit.), says that Sir E. Hughes’ fleet was largely
manned by lascars and Mrs. Graham also comments on them.

89 Given by Edwardes, op. cit., p. 144.

9 ° Bombay Despatches, IV, 12 Apr. 1775, paras. 28 and 30.

91 Bombay Letters, IV, 21 Mar. 1776, para 85.

92 Bombay Despatches, 12 Apr. 1775, para. 18.

93 Cordiner, op. cit., p. 71.

Forbes, op. cit., I, pp. 156-7; IV, p. 214.

95 The change took place in Bombay between 1783 and 1800 (see Forbes,
IV, and Mrs. Graham, p. 29).

9 6 Forbes, op. cit., IV, p. 214.

97 Macdonald, op. cit., p. 190.

98 Ibid., p. 188.

99 Bombay Despatches, 28 Apr. 1773, para. 25 and Bombay Letters, 22 Dec.
1771, para. 120 give two cases of special pensions being given to widows of
Company’s servants, who not being Europeans could not benefit by the
Military Fund in England.

100 Mrs. Graham, op. cit., p. 28.

201 Forbes, op. cit., IV, p. 239.

102 Ovington, op. cit., p. 299.

10 3 Niebuhr, op. cit., p. 24.

Chapter V

1 India Office, Home Miscellaneous Series, 332, p. 261, Letter of Strutt
to Thos. Woolley, 1715.

2 Ibid., p. 293.

3 A. Wright and W. L. Sclater, Sterne’s Eliza, p. 161. Letter from Raj ah -
mundry, 20 Jan. 1774.

4 Wright and Sclater, op. cit., pp. 95-6. Letter 10 of Lord Baring's
Collection, June 1769.

3 Cornwallis Correspondence, II, pp. 203-4.

6 For this work see Hunter, Annals of Rural Bengal.

7 Hunter in his A nnals of Rural Bengal gives a vivid picture of mofussil
life with its twin deities of Commercial Resident and Collector.

8 Cornwallis Correspondence, I, p. 282.

9 See Chapter VII on this point.

10 By the Treaty of Fyzabad 1775, two cantonments were established in
Oudh. In 1778 one of these was moved to Cawnpore. The other was at
Fatehgarh.

11 S. C. Hill, General Claud Martin, p. 90.

12 Twining, Travels 1794, p. 311.

13 Ibid., pp. 312-13.

*4 Excluding the reign of the claimant Wazir Aii, 1797-8.

x 5 Valentia, Travels, I. p. 173.

16 Bengal Obituary, pp. 269-71.

x 7 The details of his financial operations are all taken from Hill, op. cit.,
pp. 94-106.

Ml HIST/},,

THE NABOBS

Qi

icnkiorut^i

18 Hill, op. cit., p. 100. Dr. Blane’s case (quoted by him) is men*

\ Abu Talcb Khan’s Travels, p. 94. ‘ For two glass tazias with chandeliers

and shades and other appointments, one to be green and the other red. The
price was fixed at a lakh of rupees.’

x 9 The finances of Moghul India were organized on a system of advances
from the state to meet current expenses. These were recovered at death from
the property of the deceased, which was attached with the Imperial seal.

20 Lord Valentia disliked it; Von Orlich in 1843 was very impressed, while
Erskine Perry in 1855 thought it very eccentric. The palace must in fact
horrify the purist by its jumble of styles, but achieves a certain effect by its
mass and proportions (Hill, op. cit., p. 120).

21 Hill, op. cit., p. 72.

22 Twining, Travels, pp. 308-9. The complete passage is too long for
reproduction here. The best description, with a plate, of the Gumti house
is reprinted in Bengal Past and Present, II, p. 277, from The European
Magazine, XVII (Jan.-June 1790), pp. 86-7 entitled ' An Account of
Col. Martin's Villa, near Lucknow in the East Indies '.

2 3 Life of Lord Teignmouth, I, p. 409, 26 Feb. 1797.

2 4 This was a well known Moghul hot weather device. The apartment
was known as the ' Taikhana '.

2 5 Hill, op. cit., p. 91. Martin's Will is printed in the Calcutta Gazette of
2 Oct. 1800. Most of the slaves were freed and the concubines provided for.
His reasons for taking his concubines into his zenana are interesting as showing
not only the current racialism but also his opinion of the type of European too
common in the vicinity of Indian courts. He said * he could not drive them
into marriage with natives they despised, or into connections with Europeans
whom he himself looked upon with contempt ' (Hill, p. 134).

26 Twining, Travels, p. 309.

=7 Innes Munro, Narrative of Military Operations on the Coromandel Coast,
1780, p. 186. Not only the families of officers but also those of sepoys often
went on campaigns—op. cit., pp. 190-91.

28 I have only seen this last statement made by one writer ; he was cer¬
tainly prejudiced against the Government of the day, and this statement must
therefore be treated with caution.

2 9 Blakiston, Twelve Years Military Adventure in Hindustan (1802-14),
I, pp. 68-9.

3 ° Ibid., p. 253-4. It is fair to add that this was reckoned an outfit for
one in easy circumstances. Yet its effect on the mobility of the army would
be the same (I, p. 65). Camels were first used in place of bullocks in N. India
at this time.

31 Ibid, pp. 63-5.

3 2 Innes Munro, op. cit., p. 197. This applies to the south only.

33 Monson and Gower, Memoirs of C apt. G. Elers, 1797-1807, p. 63. He
gives the temperature of the officers' tents as from 90° to ioo° in the hot
weather.

34 Innes Munro, op. cit., pp. 198-9.

35 Blakiston, op. cit., I, p. 115.

3 6 Innes Munro, op. cit., pp. 189-90.

37 Ibid., p. 202.

3 8 Monson and Gower, op. cit., pp. 73-4.

39 Ibid., p. 61.

40 Ibid.

4* Blakiston, op. cit., p. 74 ; Innes Munro, op. cit., p. 87 (1780).

4 * Monson and Gower, op. cit., p. 60.

43 Blakiston, op. cit., I, pp. 40-1.

mtSTfiy

NOTES

he author of Fifteen Years hi India describes a dinner — much
jiven above—in which the party broke up at twelve, except * certain
sty souls who remained enjoying their bottle and well-spiced devils till
the generale beat at four o'clock’ (p. 40).

45 Hickey, Memoirs, II, p. 131.

4 6 Pester John, War and Sport in India (ed. Devenish), p. 58.

47 Ibid., pp. 121, 446.

4 8 Monson and Gower, op. cit., p. 121.

49 Tennant, Indian Recreations, I, pp. 322-7.

5 ° Tennant, op. cit., I, p. 325. Glass was now used for all the houses, and
was even affixed on the windward doors of tents.

5 1 It was the same influence which was doubtless responsible for the
distinctly improved tone of the descriptions of military life after 1785. Com¬
pare Innes Munro’s account in 1780 with Capt. Elers’ Memoirs (also in the
south) from 1797 to 1807.

5 2 Pester John, op. cit. (22 May 1803), p. 117 (Devenish).

53 Ibid., p. 95.

54 Ibid., p. 435.

55 L. H. Thornton, Light and Shade in Bygone India, pp. 22-3, quoting
Forbes, Oriental Memoirs, III, pp. 90-5.

5 6 Sir M. Hunter, Journal, pp. 66-7 (1784).

57 Hunts organized from Calcutta w r ere of similar elaboration and destruc¬
tiveness. Forbes, Oriental Memoirs, II, p. 489 mentions a tiger shoot w*ith
thirty elephants with a party including ladies and the painter, Zoffany. At
another party near Plassey in 1785 (IV, 99) the following w*ere shot, ' 1 royal
tiger, 6 wild buffaloes, 156 hogdeer, 25 wild hares, 150 brace of partridges
and floricans, with quails, duck, snipe and smaller birds in abundance

5 8 Hunter, op. cit., pp. 64-5.

59 Thornton, op. cit., p. 26.

60 Hunter, op. cit., p. 66.

61 Ibid., pp. 67-8. See also Wright and Sclater, Sterne's Eliza, pp. 117-20
(Letter 12, Lord Basing's Collection 1771) — for the same practice at Surat.
This w'as a characteristic Moghul sport (like big game shooting with elephants
and beaters). In 1798 Wellesley took over Tipu Sultan’s hunting establish¬
ment including several trained leopards and cheetahs (Monson and Gower,
op. cit., p. 123).

62 Hunter, op. cit., p. 69.

6 3 Williamson, East India Vade Mccum, II, p. 194.

6 4 Pester John, op. cit. (1803), p. 24 seq.

6 5 Ibid., p. 29.

66 Ibid., p. 112.

6 7 Tennant, op. cit. (1803), II, pp. 144-145.

68 Sir G. Watt, Dictionary of Economic Products of India, IV, p. 393 seq.

6 9 Govt. Circular, 13 July 1810 (quoted by R. C. Dutt, Economic History
of India (1907), p. 266). Several individual cases of indigo planters are found
in the series of Low Europeans (summarized in vol. 25) in the India Office
Records.

7 ° Quoted by R. C. Dutt, from Minutes of Evidence, etc. (1S13), op. cit.,
pp. 265-6. ‘ I find no difference in traders, whether their habits are quiet or not

when they quit this country ; they are very seldom quiet when they find them¬
selves among an unresisting people over w r hom they can exercise their authority,
for every trader going into India is considered as some person connected with
the Government. I have heard that within two or three years, I think in
Bengal in 1810, private traders, indigo merchants, have put inhabitants of
the country in the stocks, have assembled their followers and given battle

12

misT/f,,

THE NABOBS

<SL

__jch other, and that many have been wounded \ — Sir Thomas Munro s

Evidence, p. 138.

7 * R. c. Dutt, op. cit., pp. 279-80 (abstract of evidence before the
Commons Committee of 1832 and of the Reports of 1830, 1830-31 and 1831).

72 Kaye, Life of Lord Metcalfe, Appendix ; C. C. Grey and H. L. O.
Garrett, European Adventurers in Northern India.

73 Hugh Pearse, The Hearsays, p. 53.

74 Ibid., p. 54 at Khasganj, near Agra. For details of the family, see
Debrett, Peerage, under * Gardner \

75 Ibid., p. 64.

76 Twining, Travels, p. 275.

77 Ibid., p. 228. In 1803 he married the daughter of the Marquis
d'Osmond, and retired to Chambfcry in Savoy.

73 Now the seat of the Nawabs of Kamal. He died at the Shalimar
Bagh, six miles from Delhi, where Aurangzeb first crowned himself. The
garden is now in ruins. An application for a pension from one of his mis¬
tresses appears in the Delhi Residency Records.

79 Jacquemmont, Letters from India, II, p. 234. ' Fie is half Asiatic in

his habits but in other respects a Scottish highlander and excellent man, with
great originality of thought, a metaphysician to boot, and enjoying the best
possible reputation of being a country bear.'

80 Blakiston, op. cit., I, p. 144.

Si e.g. soldiers taken by Hyder. Examples of this class are given by
Garrett and Grey, op. cit.

Chapter VI

I Kindersley, Letters from the East Indies, 1777, p. 291.

■2 Williamson, East India Vade Mecutn, I, p. 177 -

5 S. C. Grier,, op. cit., p. 364.

4 Life of Lord Teignmouth, I, p. 133 (21 Jan. 1787)-

5 Cornwallis Correspondence, I, p. 401.

6 Wellesley Papers, I, p. 83 (Morrington to Grenville, 18 Nov v 1798).

7 Bernier, op. cit., p. 247.

8 Fryer, New Account of East India and Persia, Hakluyt Soc. 1909, L

p. 87.

9 Ovington, op. cit., p. 135*

10 Hickey, Memoirs, III, p. 268.

II Mrs. Graham, Journal of a Residence in India (2nd ed. 1813), p. 3 °-
12 de Grandprc, Voyage in the Indian Ocean and to Bengal (Eng. trans

4l 3 *Maria, Lady Nugent, Journal of a Residence in India, 1811-15
(London, 1839), I, p. 122.

14 Williamson, op. cit., I, p. 214.

*5 Factory Miscellaneous Records. 23, p. 24.

16 Niebuhr, Journal of Travels to Arabia and the hast (French Frans.
1780).

17 Wright and Sclater, Sterne's Eliza (Loudon, 1922), p. 24.

Williamson, op. cit., I. p. 226.

19 A. Parsons, Travels in Asia and Africa (London, 1808), p. 258.

NOTES

< “ o/ \Villiamson, op., cit. I, p. 227.

j. s. Stavorinus, Voyages to the East Indies, 1768-78 (London, 179S),
I, p. 145.

22 Williamson, op. cit., I, p. 501.

23 de Grandpr6, op. cit., p. 155.

24 Hickey, Memoirs, II, p. 136.

2 5 Blakiston, op. cit., I, p. 43.

26 See Hobson-Jobson (ed. 1903), art. on the Hookah.

27 G. Elers, Memoirs, p. 106.

28 Ibid., p. 153.

29 Mrs. Graham, op. cit.

3 ° Edwardes, Rise of Bombay, p. 122.

3 1 Ovington, op. cit., p. 204.

32 Symson, A New Voyage to the East Indies, p. 56.

33 Ibid., p. 38-40.

34 Sieur Luillier, A Voyage to the East Indies (ed. 1720), p. 245.

35 Niebuhr, op. cit., II, p. 3.

3 6 Home Miscellaneous Series, 765, p. 153 (Topham to Burrington
22 Sept. 1765).

37 Innes Munro, op. cit., p. 65.

3 8 Ives, op. cit., p. 448.

39 Ibid., p. 445.

40 J. Lind, An Essay on Diseases (London, 1768), p. 79-81.

41 Ibid., p. 127-31.

42 Ibid., p. 132.

43 Ibid., p. 140.

44 J. Johnson, Oriental Voyages, p. 93-4 (note).

45 Castellani and Chambers, Manual of Tropical Medicine (ed. 1910),
PP- 7-8.

46 F. II. Garrison, History of Medicine (ed. 1917), P* 37 °-

47 Castellani and Chambers, op. cit., p. 8.

48 Garrison, op. cit., p. 367.

49 Ibid., p. 362 and 364.

5 ° Ibid., p. 373-6.

5 1 Stavorinus, op. cit., I, p. 452.

5 2 Williamson, op. cit., I, p. 470.

53 J. Taylor, Travels in India, II, p. 100.

Chapter VII

1 Richter, History of Missions in India, p. 69.

2 Abbe Dubois, op. cit., p. 12.

3 Anderson, English in Western India, p. 336.

4 Penny, Church in Madras, I, p. 346.

5 Ibid., p. 139 ; Lambeth Palace Library MSS., 141, 95.
0 Penny, op. cit., I, p. 346.

misr/fy

THE NABOBS

<SL

7 Of Indian Christians there were the Jacobite Syrian Church of Travan-
>re which had broken away from Rome with the decline of the Portuguese, the
branch of the Syrian Church which continued in communion with Rome,
and a body of Nestorian Christians consisting of Syrian Christians who had
never submitted to Rome. There were in addition Armenian Christians
who had their own churches in the settlement towns. Dutch missionary
efforts were chiefly confined to Ceylon, where the chief relic of their work is the
' Burgher ' or mixed community/ There is to-day a Dutch Calvinist Church
in Colombo ; the services are in English, because the community has adopted
that language since the English occupation. The lTavancore Christians
were isolated and stagnant; they seem to have exercised little influence on
India as a whole. A description of their condition at the beginning of the
nineteenth century is given by Claudius Buchanan in his Christian Researches
in Asia.

3 £5° salary and £50 gratuity for good behaviour.

9 Yule, Hedges’ Diary, II, p. 232.

10 H. B. Hyde, Parochial Annals of Bengal, pp. 75-6.

11 Penny, op. cit., I, p. 164.

12 Ibid., I, p. 359. The Junior Chaplain had a special allowance of £100
to support his school work.

x 3 The cases of two chaplains who were dismissed for trading illustrate
the position. Jphn Evans, dismissed in 1691-2 and later Bishop of Bangor
and Meath, had mixed himself up in the intrigues of the free merchant opposi¬
tion to the Company of that time, and Charles Long of Madras was first sus¬
pended in 1720 by the Madras Council for refusing to go to Fort St. David, and
dismissed by the Directors in 1721 because they had private information that
he was interfering in the Europe trade.' Private trade with Europe was for a
chaplain, as for other Company's servants, forbidden, but elsewEere it was
at most an indiscretion which did not become serious unless it led to inter¬
ference with his clerical duties. For the Rev. Charles Long, see Penny, The
Church in Madras, I, pp. 140-51, and Love, op. cit., II, p. 181, for Rev. John
Evans, see Penny, op. cit., I, p..666, and Hyde, op. cit., pp. 19-21. There are
references to the private trade of chaplains (as matters of routine business)
in 1708 and 1710—the Rev. Benj. Adams (Hyde, op. cit., p. 53), 1717 —the
Rev. W. Steavenson Public Consultations, 48, 8 April 1717). There are other
references to the practice in wills. For the legal aspect, see H. W. Cripps, Law
Relating to Church and Clergy (7th ed. k i92i), pp. 92-5.

14 Penny, op. cit., I, p. 380. A good case of this occurred in 1793, when
the new regulations fixing his salary at 165 pagodas a year, which was a
reduction, were interpreted by the Governor as being an addition to the old
basic rate of ^100 a year.

13 Lockyer, op. cit.

16 Hyde, op. cit. The Church at Calcutta was consecrated in 1709 and
destroyed in 1756.

17 Forbes, op. cit.. Ill, p. 32.

18 Dubois, op. cit., p. 17.

1 9 Penny, op. cit., I, p. 561. \

*° The chaplains were librarians at Madras until the library was dispersed

on its capture by the French (Penny, op. cit., I, p. 147). See also the books
of the chaplain Staveley (1762) ; Hyde, op. cit., pp. 1-9.

21 Penny, op. cit., I, p. 290. They were nominated by Simeon and
Grant and v/ere the four Bengal chaplains, Brown, Come, Parson and Martyn,
and Marmaduke Thompson at Madras. The reform in Calcutta, however,
really began with Chaplain Owen

22 Hamilton, op. cit., II, p. 10.

23 See the Rev. H. B. Hyde's defence of the Rev. John Evans (dismissed
for private trading 169*1-2, who was said by Salmon [1704] to have made enough

misT/f),

NOTES

hase a bishoprick and sit in the English House of Lords on his retu:
Rev. F. Penny’s treatment of the case of the Rev. St. J. Browne, dis-
for killing his servant in a passion. He calls it ' an unfortunate error
of judgement

24 Penny, I, pp. 400-5.

-5 Ibid., {$.355.

26 Wheeler, Madras in the Olden Time, II, pp. 225-7.

27 Forrest, Clive , I, p. 82.

28 Hyde, op. cit., p. 260.

29 Forrest, op. cit., I, p. 21.

30 Penny, op. cit., I, p. 284.

31 Wheeler, op. cit., Ill, p. 35.

32 Penny, I, pp. 284-5.

33 Ibid., I, p. 248. Madras Consultations, 19 Jan. 1718. Rennell
(26 Oct. 1765), Home Misc. Series, 198, p. 276, records hearing a sermon
from Tillotson (No. 29) on the text * Can the Ethiopian change his skin ? *
He says ‘ it was a very excellent sermon and was intended to reprove Col.
Fletcher whose ill habits make him hated ’.

34 S. Goldburne, Hartly House Calcutta, p. 25.

33 Seton-Kerr, Selections from the Calcutta Gazette, I, p. 209.

36 Hyde, op. cit., p. 194 (quoted from the Calcutta Gazette ).

37 C. Simeon, Memoir of Rev. D .Brown, p. 32.

38 Simeon, op. cit., p. 32.

39 Penny, op. cit., I, p. 418. From 24 in ten years to nearly 50.

40 Penny, op. cit., I, p. 551.

41 Blakiston, op. cit., I, p. 276, illustrates this by his anecdote of
the chaplain who excused himself from a rubber of whist ‘ because he had a
d—d soldier to bury \

42 The Company may be said to have entertained a vague idea of mission
work itself in 1700. The Charter of 1698 provided that every Chaplain was
to learn Portuguese in one year and the language of the country ‘ the better
to enable them to instruct the Gentoos that should be the servants or slaves
of the same Campany, or of their agents, in the Protestant religion '. The
Rev. G. Lewis conducted his Portuguese School with this purpose, but no work
among Indians developed.

43 Richter, op. cit., pp. 72-3, and Dubois, op. cit., p. 61.

44 Ibid., p. 60 seq. Manucci, Storia Do Mogor, III, p. 320 seq. gives
further details and a circumstantial account of the collapse of the mission.
His bias against the Pondicherry Jesuits is to a large extent supported
by A. R. Pillai, who had no interest in the matter.

43 Manucci, op. cit.. Ill, p. 231 seq. The Jesuits were called Roma-
puri and learned Sanskrit and Tamil in Malabar before going to Madura as
Brahmins.'

46 Ibid., Ill, pp. 343-5. He mentions the adoption of Hindu marriage
customs, nocturnal processions and the use of Hindu caste marks.

47 Ibid., Ill, p. 334. He says the common people thought the Jesuits and
the Capuchins had different gods.

48 Ibid., IV, pp. 381-2.

49 Dubois, op. cit., p. 69.

50 Penny, op. cit., I, p. 229.

51 Fryer, A New Account of East India and Persia, I, p. 38.

52 Penny, op. cit., I, pp. 465-6 (Madras Consultations, 30 Oct. 1787).

33 Dubois, op. cit., p. 75.

54 Dodwell, Nabobs of Madras, p. 201.

THE NABOBS

<SL

55 Letter to Fort St. George, 24 Dec. 1675, para. 73.

5 6 Love, op. cit., II, p. 46.

5 7 Despatch to Bengal, 3 March 1756, para. 46.

5 8 European Inhabitants (Madras), III, A.

59 Penny, op. cit., I, p. 79 (Madras Consultations, 22 March 1680).

60 Ibid., p. 228 and Wheeler, Madras in the Olden Time, II, p. 40-1.

61 Ibid., p. 234 (Madras Consultations, April and May 1719)-

02 Prof. Dodwell (Nabobs of Madras, pp. 202-3) quotes some cases of this
consent being refused, but these refusals were social in motive and indeed
racial It shows the growth of racial feelings since the regulations of 1687,
which encouraged intermarriage and offered a gratuity for every child born.
This still continued in 1740 ( Madras Records, vol. 70). Consultations, 10 March
1739 (Penny, op. cit., I, p. 107).

63 eg., in 1715 Governor Harrison formally exonerated the Capuchins
from various Jesuit attacks, specially that of trading. (Love, op. cit., II,

pp. 49-50 )

6 4 Love, op. cit., II, p. 45-

6 5 Hyde, op. cit., pp. 116 and 121.

66 Penny, op. cit., I, p. 337.

67 Wilson, Madras Army, I, p. 41 (Artillery Regulation, December 1747.
Paras. 26 and 33).

68 Sargent, Memoir of the Rev. H. Martyn, p. 298.

69 There are a few exceptions to this. There is a reference to Black
Canarese Priests ' in Padre Milton's Letter, 26 Oct. 1712 (Home Misc Series,
<o). Dubois says that they were not capable of carrying on alone, which was
probably because they had not been properly educated or drawn from the
right class. This is confirmed by Fra. P. de San Bartolomeo (Voyage to the
East Indies, p. 200), who said that ' Black Priests 1 were ‘ proud and ignorant
and unfit for responsibility ’.

70 Twining, Travels, pp. 178 and 204-5. The meeting was in i 793 ' 4 -

7 1 Richter, op. cit., p. 104 seq.

72 On the recommendation of Chaplain Stevenson of Madras, 1714-18.

73 Penny, op. cit., I, p. 193*

74 Love, op. cit., Ill, pp. 43 1 " 2 -

75 Bengal Obituary, pp. 34-5.

76 Penny, op. cit., I, p. 194 (Home Misc. Series, 59).

77 J. Page, Swartz of Tanjore, pp. 75-6.

? s Martyn, Journal, I, p. 449 gives a good description of this.

79 Pearson, Memoirs of C. F. Swartz, pp. 74-5 ( in a letter to the Rev.
G. A. Francke, 6 Oct. 1768).

80 Ibid., p. 239 (Letter to Dr. Knapp, 27 Jan. I 77 1 )*

81 This was not typical of all missionaries.

82 Page, op. cit., p. 195. This was related to Bishop Wilson by Kohlofi
at a dinner and repeated in his Charge of 1839.

®3 Ibid., pp. 75-6.

8 4 Martyn, Journal, I, pp. 512-13.

8 5 Bengal Obituary, pp. 34-5*

86 Richter, op. cit., p. 124. They also worked at Serampore irom i 777 " 9 i.

87 Carey, William Carey, p. 97 - See also his life by C. B. Lewis.

88 Ibid., p. 145- _* * . 4.1

69 He was joined by Fountain as a lay helper in 1797. The only other
English missionary was the first arrival of the London Missionary Society.

90 Carey, op. cit., pp. 178-9 (Diary of Marshman, 1 Dec. 1799)-

miST/fy

.^^ichter, op. cit., pp. 124-5.

NOTES

—^ 92 Fort St. George to the Court, 20 Aug. 1711, para. 172 (Home Misc.
Series, 46, p. 517. MSS. Collections for Bruce’s Annals).

93 Home Misc. Series, 46, p. 331 (Despatch of 1 April 1708).

94 Wheeler, op. cit., II, p. 177. Ziegenbalg was given a passage from
Madras for this reason.

93 Schultze, in Madras from 1728, was the first to be wholly supported by
the S.P.C.K.

96 Wheeler, op. cit., II, p. 178.

97 Home Misc. Series, 59. The stores included money, books, stationery,
printing requirements, beer, wine, cheeses, hour glasses, spectacles, etc.

98 Manucci, Storia do Mogor, IV, p. 112.

99 Ibid., Ill, p. 197.

100 Cornwallis Correspondence, I, p. 398.

101 Valentia, Travels, I, p. 364.

102 Carey, op. cit., p. 143.

103 Penny, op. cit., I, pp. 497-8 ; Coupland, Life of IVilberforce, p. 383.

104 Simeon, op. cit., pp. 54-5.

103 Sergeant, op. cit., p. 258.

106 Martyn, Journal, II, p. 32 (17 March 1807).

107 Ibid., I, p. 449 (20 May 1806).

108 These details are taken from the introduction to his Remains.

109 Pearson, op. cit., p. 145.

110 Pearson, op. cit., I, p. 155.

111 Ibid., p. 143.

112 Rev. Dr. Kerr, a company’s chaplain, Page, Swartz of Tanjore, p. 190.

113 Pearson, op. cit., p. 314.

114 Ibid., p. 43.

113 Ibid., p. 264.

116 Ibid., p. 120.

117 Ibid., p. 113.

118 Ibid., p. 316.

119 Grose, Voyage to the East Indies, I, p. 262.

120 Pearson, op. cit., I, p. 347 (Letters to S.P.C.K., 22 Feb. 1797).

121 Ibid., p. 104 ; cf. e.g., Martyn, Journal, I, pp. 443, 448, 452.

. 122 Martyn, Journal, II, pp. 32, 499.

123 Pearson, op. cit., p. 142.

Chapter VIII

1 Mrs. Graham, Journal of a Residence in India, p. 174.
r 2 Visits of Moghul Governors to Madras like that of Da'ud Khan in
0v - Pitt's time. See chap. I.

3 The Rev. G. Lewis, see chap. I, p. 18. He never actually went, as
, tlle embassy, proposed in 1708, did not reach Delhi until 1714, when he had

e *t India (Cambridge History of India, V, p. 111).

4 Ananda Ranga Pillai, Diary (ed. Dodweil and others).

5 Ibid., X, p. 220.

Ml NIST^

THE NABOBS

<SL

l-5 >" 6 Tl i r> 26 M. Delorme * made no distinction between ncli and
poor, never too'k a bribe, and treated the native on a footmg of equaUty with
the European \

7 Ovington, op. cit., pp. I 43 “ 4 *

9 eg''Ibid. ; Symson, A New Voyage to the Eastjndiesijo^ P ^3 ^Sieur

T uillier Voyage to East Indies, ly^o, p. 2 5 » * J , , 77 , o vols

1774, I,’ p 105 ; Niebuhr, Journal of Travels to Arabia and the East, a vols.,

1780, p. 13 *

10 Symson, op. cit., pp. 46-7.
ir Ovington, op. cit., p. 235.

13 FOTbes^p^cit III, p. 32; Blakiston, op. cit., I, p. 276.
u Fryer, op P cit„ p. 38. At Masulipatam ‘ the English keep their fashion

tho’ cloth ’d in white \

15 The Diaries of Streynsham Master. _ ntTV Caota in

16 Hobson-Jobson (ed. 1903). P- 65. Letter from an Old Country Captam

in the India Gazette, 24 Feb. 1781. /rimilars for

D. Dewar, Handbook to the Records of the U.P PP; 3 " 9 ^ Hon.

Superior Courts, 1826-41). Thi-w*. SP ^Lo 5 ier Agra
F. J. Shore (see Dewar’s Bygone India). For anotner msrau

Records, see p. 198 in the Handbook.

18 Fran. Pelsaert, Remonstrantie.

Z Tl“- P o.t: F. No* .0 ,»d « S«»» »

Farruksiyar.

21 See chap. Ill, pp- 78-80.

22 Love, op. cit., Ill, p- 224.

23 Memoirs of A siaticus. F 1lrnn ean was allowed to

24 Johnson, Oriental Voyages, p. 74 - ", theway to Europe '.

enter the Palace, so that a wag wrote over the door, the way to P

2 5 Ives, A Voyage to India, pp. 70-1.

26 Innes Munro, op. cit., p. 62. „ . T 8 Mar 1786).

27 Add. MSS. 29.170, p. 15 (Grattan to Warren 18 “ y 7 flo

23 Hill, Catalogue of Orme MSS., II. p. 57 (MS. No. 28, [1 ].

pp. 217-227 Orme to Payne, 17 Nov. 1757 )- . T - r6sa

P 2 9 D’Oyley, Williamson and Blagdon, The European in India. Letterp

to PI. XX.

30 Elers, Memoirs, p. 78.

31 D’Oyley, Williamson and Blagdon, ibid.

3« Blakiston, op. cit., I, pp. 211-12.

33 Shore, Notes on Indian Affairs, II, P* 10 •

34 Ibid., I, p. 106.

35 Hickey, Memoirs, pp. 236-7 (the case of Potts).

36 Cornwallis Correspondence, I, p. 5 2 9 -

37 Home Misc. Series, 68, pp. 473"4 anf * 479 “^°*

38 Valentia, op. cit., I, p. 173 -

39 Twining, op. cit., pp. 167-8.

40 For a fuUer description of Lucknow, see supra p. 140-4.

41 Grier, Hastings * Letters to His V ife.

4 2 Valentia, op. cit., I, p. 143

43 See chap. III. .

44 Grier, op. cit., p. 262, gives one example.

WNIST^

NOTES

g. see the Journals of Lady Nugent (1811-15) and Mrs. Feni

r 3 o).

46 Symson, op. cit., p. 63.

47 Macdonald, op. cit., p. 204.

48 Parsons, op. cit., p. 261. In Surat thirty large ships were owned
by Parsis and manned by English captains and officers.

Macintosh, op. cit., II, pp. 36 and 40.

50 Valentia, op. cit., I, pp. 187-8.

51 Mrs. Graham, Journal of a Residence in India, pp. 42-3.

52 Macdonald, op. cit., p. 211.

33 Blakiston, op. cit., I, p. 111.

34 He founded the Calcutta Madrasah in 1781.

53 Carey, op. cit., I, pp. 308-14, has printed several examples of
these.

36 Grier, op. cit., p. 276.

3/ Add. MSS. 29,178, p. 280 (Gen. Palmer to Warren Hastings, 10 Oct.
1802).

38 Add. MSS. 29,173, p. 338 (Turner to Hastings, 24 Mar. 1795).

39 Add. MSS. 29,171, p. 372 (Palmer to Hastings, 13 Aug. 1789).

60 Tafazzul Husain Khan, Minister of Oudli, and Vakil in Calcutta.

61 Add. MSS. 29,170, p. 37 (Thomson to Hastings). Here the intimacy
goes far enough for joking.

62 Add. MSS. 29,178, p. 63 (Palmer to Hastings, 10 July 1801).

63 Cornwallis Correspondence, I, p. 282. On the very next page he
suspects that every Collector was deeply engaged in private trade.

64 Add. MSS. 29,170, p. 298 (Larkins to Hastings, 20 Nov. 1786), and
ibid., p. 346 (Pearse to Hastings, 8 Jan. 1787).

63 Add. MSS. 29,172 (Palmer to Hastings, p. 220, 19 Sept. 1786), p. 257
(8 Nov. 1786), p. 274 (14 Nov. 1786), and p. 276.

66 Cornwallis Correspondence, I, p. 529.

67 Ibid., II, pp. 201-2.

68 Add. MSS. 29,170, p. 224 (Palmer to Hastings, 19 Sept. 1786).

69 Ibid., p. 257 (Palmer to Hastings, Nov. 1786). * Shore has many

strong prejudices, and a universal one against the Natives of India.'

70 Shore, op. cit., II, p. 500. When this was the tendency it is
not surprising to find that Cornwallis had vigorously to assert the honour and
importance of commissions with Indian equally with European regiments.

71 Mirza Abu Taleb Khan in his Travels (ed. C. Stewart), pp. 51-2, gives
a good instance of this attitude. See also the Seir Mutaqhenn, III, pp. 161
and 170-1.

72 Add. MSS. 29,178, p. 278 (Palmer to Hastings, 10 Oct. 1802).

73 Williamson, op. cit., I, p. 347.

74 Lady Nugent in her Journal (1809-13) gives an instance of the latter.
In Devendranath Tagore's Autobiography (pp. 74-5) there is an instance of
the former and of the jealousy it excited among the Bengalis.

73 Mrs. Graham, op. cit., pp. 136, 139.

/6 Tennant, hidian Recreatiofis, I, pp. 39-4°* He adds: ‘The
dissipation of the Europeans is far more conspicuous than the insolence of the
natives.'

77 Williamson, op. cit., I, p. 336. The passage refers to the servant class
of European -women, who frequently broke their contracts in order to marry
or to set up on their own.

misr/fy

*yy /8 Shore,
examples of

THE NABOBS

<SL

op.

this

cit., II, p. 500. See the whole chapter for many
state of things. Shore's memory reached back to the
eighteenth century and his evidence is therefore that of an eye-witness.

79 Ibid., p. 114.

80 Ibid., p. 108.

81 Ibid., p. 496.

82 e.g. See Curzon, British Government in India for the scale and spirit
of Wellesley’s household. See also the Private Journals of the Marquess of
Hastings.

83 A good example is given in the Hastings Correspondence (Miss Peacock
in Add. MSS. 29,170 and 29,171).

8 4 e.g. the fashions of eating pan and smoking hookahs.

8 5 For this see chap. Ill on the Later Settlements.

86 For examples see Kaye, History of the Sepoy Mutiny and the Life of
Lord Canning. For the soldier’s attitude see E. Thompson, The Other Side
of the Medal. Tannenbaum, Darker Phases of the South shows the same
psychology at work in the United States.

8 7 Observations on India (Anon.), p. 149.

88 Mrs. Fenton, op. cit., p. 242.

8 9 Martyn, Journals.

9 ° Mrs. Fenton, op. cit., p. 82.

9 1 Manucci, op. cit., Ill, p. 73 ; Hickey in his Memoirs gives examples
of this.

92 Grose, op. cit., I, pp. 28-74, was one of the first to notice that all
Indians were not black.

93 Macintosh, op. cit., II, p. 47, mentions a general Hindu complaint of
the insolence of the common soldiers. See also the opinion of Swartz,
Dubois and Cornwallis about them.

94 See above, p. 59-

Chapter IX

1 Williamson, East India Vade Mecum, I, p. 127.

2 Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth Century (ed. 1920), II,
p.155 quoted from Lockhart’s Life of Scott, V, pp. 136, 137.

MIN/Sr/jy

APPENDIX A

SKETCH OF THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF INDIA IN THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

At the opening of the eighteenth century the Moghul Empire, stretching
from Madras to Kabul, administered by the tireless octogenarian Aurangzeb,
seemed to the casual observer as strong as ever in its history. The kingdoms
of the south had been annexed, the troublesome robbers of Maharastra were
being hunted down in their hill fastnesses, the discontented Rajput chiefs
did not seem to be a serious menace, and the English merchants, who had hoped
to emancipate themselves from imperial control, had been firmly repressed.
But the imposing fa5ade of imperial power hid an internal decay which was
sapping the empire from its foundations; like Aurangzeb himself the empire
had lost the secret of renewing its youth and could only struggle on with ever
increasing perplexity and decrepitude.

The Moghul Empire, as established by Akbar, had rested on three founda¬
tions —the Rajput alliance, the policy of toleration, and the willing obedience
of both Hindus and Muslims. On these three pillars were raised the centralized
administrative system which enabled the Emperor to hold together the vast
area of India with the limited resources and communications of the time.
Aurangzeb by his re-imposition of the 1 jizya ’ tax (on non-Muslims) and
the Maratha war had alienated both Rajputs and Hindus, and by his many
campaigns impoverished the whole country. The empire, from being an
embryo national state in which all classes could take an equal pride, reverted
to the status of a military government by a minority community, which must
inevitably collapse when subjected to any serious strain.

Aurangzeb was followed by no capable successor w r ho might have restored
the original conception of the empire, and the main interest of the first half
of the eighteenth century is consequently the gradual break up of the
empire. There follows a short period of political confusion, which ended
'vith the emergence of four great military powers—the Maratha Confederacy,
Mysore, the Sikhs and the East India Company.

The short revival of Moghul power represented by the crushing of the
Sikhs in 1717 and the rule of the Sayyid brothers died away with their over¬
throw and the heedless incompetence of Mohammad Shah (17x9-48). Un¬
able to rule himself and unwilling to allow others to rule for him, the ‘ merry
’ drifted from compromise to compromise until he handed the empire
itself to Nadir Shah the Persian in 1739. Mohammad Shah was the Louis
XVI of the Moghul Empire and he, more than any other single man, must
bear the responsibility for its irredeemable ruin. In 1726 the Wazir Asaf Jah,
disgusted with the Emperor's fickleness, retired to the Deccan provinces, there
to become the first Nizam of Hyderabad. In 1738 the Marathas cut the
empire in two by the annexation of Malwa (now the Maratha states of
Gwalior and Indore) and in 1739 came the crowming blow of the invasion of
Nadir Shah. Pusillanimity and treachery together lost the day at Karnal and
h-d step by step to the humiliation of Delhi and the terror of its sack. This was

175

THE NABOBS

^ end of the empire as an effective ruling power in India; its end as a
political institution was completed between 1750 and 1761 by Ghazi-ad-din
Khan, whose unrestrained ambitions and tragic infatuation verified too
completely the proverb ‘ Whom the gods doom to destruction they first deprive
of reason \ In 1761 Afghans and Marathas fought over the prostrate body
of the empire at Panipat while the Emperor was a fugitive in Behar.

Panipat deprived the Marathas of the succession to the empire, but the
Afghans were too weak and unorganized ever to rule Hindustan themselves.
They could do no more than make occasional destructive raids which
increased the anarchy their first invasions had commenced. In Delhi itself
the Moghuls lingered on for another twenty years as rulers of Delhi and Agra;
their fortunes flared up in a last gleam of prosperity under the leadership of
Mirza Najaf Khan until it was finally extinguished in blood and fire by the
renegade chief Ghulam Kadir in 1788. The blinding of Shah Alam was a
symbolic atrocity, for with his sight was finally extinguished the last traces of
imperial power ; his touching lament is the death song of the Moghul Empire.
The Punjab, after being the playground of adventurers for thirty years, was
at the end of the century restored to order by the genius of the Sikh chief
Ranjit Singh.

Ihe Persians struck the most fatal blow at the Moghul power, but it was
the Marathas who inherited most of their power. Excluded by Panipat from
the north, the Marathas advanced in the centre and south as the Moghuls
retreated. By 1750 their dominions centred in Poona, stretched from the
west to the Bay of Bengal, and from the banks of the Ganges to the borders
of Mysore, they remained substantially united until 1772, but from that time
competing claims to the Peshwaship and the rivalries of the great subordinate
military cliiefs, like Sindia and Holkar, gradually broke up their unity. The
diplomacy of Nana Fadnavis held them together in a loose confederacy until
1800, but after his death the mutual jealousies of the five great Maratha
chiefs enabled Lord Wellesley first to divide and then to defeat them in
turn in the Maratha war of 1803.

In 1748, when the English and French first began to take an active part
in Indian politics, India was divided between the Maratha Confederacy in
the centre, the independent offshoots of the Moghul Empire represented by
Oudh, Bengal, Hyderabad and the Carnatic, and the independent state of
Mysore in the south, shortly to become formidable under the Muslim adven¬
turer Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan. There was a multiplicity of states
but no balance of power, a fictitious legal unity centred in Delhi, but no
recognized rights and duties as between the possessors of actual power.
Behind all this was the old Indian tradition of unity and the tendency always to
seek through a period of confusion and strife a new synthesis with the emergence
of a new paramount power.

During the second half of the century the two centres of interest in Indian
history are, first, the struggle for supremacy in the north or Hindustan, and
secondly, the gradual growth of British power from the coast, at the expense
successively of the French, the Nawab of Bengal, Mysore and the Marathas.
To take the north first, Panipat was not a dci isive battle in that it gave Hindu¬
stan to the Afghans, for it only ordained that the Marathas should not control
it. Panipat postponed the ultimate fate of Hindustan for forty years until
the third Maratha war gave Delhi and Agra to the British, and the Treaty

miSTffy

APPENDIX

§L

of^Amritsar in 1809 made the Sutlej the boundary between the British
and Sikhs.

During these years the British power grew step by step in a series of wars
which began as defensive measures against the French, were continued for
the security of trade, and completed from imperialistic motives by Wellesley.
The Anglo-French wars ended in 1761 with the capture of Pondicherry and
its dismantlement; henceforward the English had no serious European rivals.
There followed the conquest of Bengal, inaugurated by Clive at Plassey and
completed in 1764 by Munro's victory over the Emperor Shah Alam, Sliuja-
ad-daula of Oudh, and Mir Kasim of Bengal at the hard fought battle of
Baksar. The next wars were against the Marathas and the new military
power of Hyder Ali in Mysore between 1775 and 1782 ; it was the achieve¬
ment of Warren Hastings that he faced a coalition of the Nizam, Hyder Ali
and the Marathas at a time when no reinforcements could reach him from
Europe on account of the American War of Independence, and maintained
his possessions intact. His successor Cornwallis did not try to extend English
influence, but busied himself with purging the government of corruption, and
reorganizing the administration and the services on lines which largely subsist
to-day.

But it was significant that no gain previously made was given up, and
even Cornwallis drifted into a war with Tipu Sultan of Mysore which resulted
in large annexations in the south. The final period commences with the
governorship of Wellesley, who by his policy of subsidiary alliances deliberately
set himself to establish the East India Company as the new paramount power
of India. He virtually achieved this by the Maratha war of 1803-5 and his
work was completed by Lord Hastings in 1818.

APPENDIX B

A SELECTION OF INVENTORIES CONTAINED IN THE FACTORY
MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS, THE PUBLIC DESPATCHES, AND THE
BENGAL INVENTORIES

Unless otherwise stated, each inventory is given in full. Some of these
lists are Account Sales of those who died intestate. In these cases the prices
obtained and the buyers are omitted.

I. Selections from the goods of Mr. Vincent Broom, sold on 2 Jan. 1701-2

(Factory Miscellaneous Records, 23, p. 44).

Dram bottle and snuff box.

A byonett and two medalls.

A Cotton bed and Curtains.

A black Coat.

Cannary 38 bottles.

A Cask of tobacco.

Shoes six pair, Slippers two pairs.

Three pairs of Briches and night gown.

A long old wigg.

A pallaqueen.

II. Selections from the Account Sale of Mrs. Eliz. Arwaker of Bombay,
18 Oct. 1701 (Factory Miscellaneous Records, 23, p. 44).

1 Caraboy of Arrack.

2 Old Landskipps.

A Box of Pipes.

Gowns, Petticoats and Farms.

A parcel of Pewter Dishes and Plates.

10 Goa Hogsheads.

1 Do. of Limejuice.

55 Napkins and 44 pillow beers.

12 Sneakers.

A Cott with bedding and Laceing.

Do. with curtains, etc.

A Slave man and Woman.

2 Amber neckclothes.

An Old Mosquetta Bag.

2 Sett of Curtaines.

A box of pipes.

3 pallumpores.

A slave boy.

A Carraboy of Limewater.

III. Selections from the Account Sale of Ambrose Thompson, at Bombay
Castle, 27 Sept. 1701 (Factory Miscellaneous Records, 23, p. 44).

A Black Coat, Wastcoat and breeches.

A Chest of Limbeck bottles.

A Bible, paper, etc.

A Pallaqueen and furniture.

3 Wiggs.

28 Neckcloths.

misT/fr

i Microscope.

A Carraboy of Portugall wine.
A Slave boy.

48 gallons of Clarett.

APPENDIX

L

IV. Inventory of Goods and Merchandise belonging to Mr. E. Hanslopp, of
Bombay, taken Sept. .1710.

Various snuff boxes, 1 gold, 1 silver, and 2 gilt.

A Bundle of China Pictures.

One Black Damask Waste Coat and Breeches with Linnen not
made up.

One Old Hoboy.

A Box with a Dead Scorpion.

6 Banian Wastecote & Drawes.

1 Buckshaw.

4 Images.

1 Old Quilt, 1 Musketta Bagg.

1 China Tobaco pipe and puree.

1 Box of Pipps.

19 Pair of Velvet Slippers.

1 China Purse.

3 China Wenches.

74 prs. pelongs sundry sorts.

3 pieces black Taffetee.

150 tfanns.

44 Rice Boxes.

15 Tea Pots.

888 Brown Cups.

2 Rosewater Bottles.

V. List of things found in Mrs. Browne’s house (widow of Samuel Browne
a bankrupt), 1 Sept. 1720 {Bengal Public Despatches, 1720, p. 197).

12 Madras Chairs.

1 Couch.

2 Tables.

A Writing Desk.

4 Old Pictures.

A Pallenkeen Shell and Bamboo with 4 Silver feet.
A Crown Compass.

A Glass Lanthorn.

A Board for Armes on which a Doll.

A pair files.

An old cloth faun.

An old cott.

An Ebony Table.

A Writing Escrutore and Table.

A Wigg box.

A great empty chest.

3 Lances.

An empty case.

A Claps cott.

A Copper frame and kittchen
A Carpett.

A small table.

A Chest of Draws.

A brasswork chest.

A Glass and dressing table.

A small dram case.

A large black press.

A small chest and parceil of books.

^VlQNl 4°

THE NABOBS

A Child’s cott.

2 silver spoons.

A knife and fork with silver fcrrels.

A Quilt.

A small looking glass.

A small box.

14 Chairs and a Couch.

2 pr. Stands and 2 Stools Ebony.

A Standing Cott and Curtains.

A small Cabinett.

A flower peice.

A few China Begers.

A Pallenkeen with brasswork.

A pair Glass sconces.

Cookroom utensils : a spitt, boiler, dish, ladle, Copper pott
and cover, saucepan and 4 seerpooses, 6 Dishes and
plates.

Wearing Apparell

2 Gowns and Petticoats.

2 pr. Shoes.

2 quilted pettycoats.

A parcel of White Lennen.

A new black silk pettycoat.

A parcell of foul Linning in a Black press, and 2 coats.

4 Sticht Wasteco'ats and 6 pr. of Briches.

3 Gyngham Wastecoats and 6 prs. of Briches.

10 pair WEite draws and 30 new Shirts.

VI. Inventory and Sale of the Effects of Mr. George Shelton, deceased, at
four months’ credit. 4 May 1725. A Selection (Factory Miscellaneous
Records, 23, p. 100).

A Crucifix and Beads.

1 Lace and 1 plain Hat.

1 Gold headed Cane.

1 Brass mounted Sword.

4 Canes, one Silver headed.

1 Wigg, a hat and 2 Combs.

1 China Hand Escritoire.

A Slate, a few belts with one Silver Buckle.

A Cot, Curtains, Pillows, etc.

A Parcell of Sheets and Tablecloths.

3 Palampores.

4 Wastecoats and 4 Breeches Stitch'd.

6 Wastecoats and 6 do. Gingham.

5 flowered Wastecoats and 1 pair Breeches.

5 Thick Caps, etc.

A parcell of Men and Women's Gloves.

29 Shirts.

23 pair of Caswar stockings.

5 Banyan Coats.

A parcell of Pictures.

A pair of Pistolls.

1 Coat trimmed with Silver.

A Parcell of Handkerchiefs.

A large Escrewtore.

Some China Ware Guglets, etc.

A Flask of Oyl and a Sims Tinder Box.

2 Musick Books.

3 Flutes and a Hautboy.

APPENDIX

A Lock and Hammer.

A Parcell of Candles.

A pair of Stretchers and Lasts.
A Suit of Livery Cloathes.

A Parcell of Tobacco and Pipes.
2 old Gunns.

A Pleasure Boat.

m

VII. Inventory of the Effects of Nicholas Clarembault,
egun the 18 November 1755 {Bengal Inventories,
section).

Esquire, deceased,
I, pp. 30-4, 2nd

Household Effects, etc.

1 Gold Repeating Watch with a Shagreen Case.

1 ring Emerald set with Sparks.

2 Family Rings.

4 old broken Watches.

1 new pinchbeck’d Do. in a shagreen case.

1 set of Silver Buckles.

1 Seal with his Arms.

2 Boxes containing 2 Watch Glasses.

3 Buttons and a Smelling Bottle.

In the Hall and Outer Rooms

6 Teak and Oil Wood Tables.

1 Beaufet with Glass Doors.

4 Couches.

'4 Great Chairs.

2 Jackwood Chairs.

11 Ebony Arm Chairs.

1 Glass Lanthom.

4 Japan Stands.

1 Writing Desk.

20 Old Pictures in Wooden Frames.

4 Brass Pigdannies.

2 Brass Astabarreys.

2 Jars containing Tobacco and Kishmisses.

1 Box with two Looking Glasses without Frames.

2 Jars Damag’d Pickles.

1 Almira.

1 Backgammon Table.

1 Almira with Books.

In the Bed Chamber
1 Writing Desk.

1 Almeira with a Glass Front.

2 Paper ditto.

11 Small Chairs.

2 Escrutoirs with Papers.

4 Arm Chairs.

4 Card Tables.

2 Small Scrutores,
r Bed and Curtains.

6 Glass Shades.

A Set of Prints representing the Passions.
32 Ordinary Pictures.

A Brass Chellumchce.

A Brass Teakettle.

1 Backgammon Table.

2 Mahogany Tea Chests.

13

THE NABOBS

i ditto. Knife Case,
i Broken old Clock.

io Baskets containing China and Glassware.
4 Cattys of Tea.

i Armoury Board containing 5 Musquets

1 Blunderbuss.

A Parcel of damag’d Stationery.

2 Chests of Glass ware.

2 Boxes and 1 chest of ditto.

2 Small Looking Glasses.

1 Basket of Rubbish.

First Chest

2 New Goldlac’d Hatts.

1 Plain ditto.

2 Sword Belts.

2 Silver kilted Sw r ords.

2 do. Hangers.

2 Gold headed Canes.

1 Chubdar stick silver mounted.

1 do. half-mounted.

3 Table Rings (Silver).

1 Silver Kettle with a Lamp.

2 do. Sugar dishes with Coverlids.

1 do. Soup Spoon.

2 do. Rose Water Bottles and Stands.

1 do. Small Mug.

1 Orange Strainer.

1 Otta Box with a Silver Salver.

2 Shells set in Silver.

1 Persian Callioon Silver.

17 Table Spoons Silver.

2 Hooker Glasses with their Nutte.

Silver Cruets and Pepper Box.

19 Silver Tea Spoons.

2 Small Silver Salvers.

1 Large ditto.

2 Guglets Silver-mounted.

1 Silver Coffee Pot.

j do. Saucepan.

1 do. Tea Pot.

1 do. small Coffee Pot.

2 do. Muggs.

1 Pair of Silver Cullusses.

1 Silver Tiger’s Head.

18 do. Tassels.

2 Goa Stones.

1 Murchall Silver Handle.

1 Piece of Virgin Camphire.

Old Cloathes and Linen.

Second Chest

1 Otter Dannie, Old Cloathes and Linen.
Third Chest

1 Large Silver Tobacco Box.

17 Old Snuff Boxes.

2 Judan Stones.

1 Small Padlock.

9 Remnants of Gold and Silver Lace.

WHlST/fy

APPENDIX

12 Papers of Silver and Gold Thread Buttons.

2 New Hatts.

A Remnant of China Velvet.

3 Pieces of Nankeen,

1 do. Scarlet Camblet.

3 do. Cunor Dute (?).

2 do. Cossimbazaar Taffaties.

5 Remnants of Europe Silk,
i Piece Cossimbazaar Silk,
i do. China Silk,
i do. Black Padusoy.

1 do. Greenflower’d Gauze.

6 Remnants of Broadcloth.

3 Canes.

2 Pairs Scarlet Knit Breeches.

1 Gold Point de Espagne.

2 Pairs Handkerchiefs.

1 Box of Rubbish.

2 Smelling Bottles.

1 Corkscrew.

4 Japan Counter Boxes.

2 Pairs Cam brick.

3 do. Madras Handkerchiefs,
i Rosewood Counter Box.

5 Pieces of Long Cloth,
i Pair Cussordule Curtains.

Linnen and Rubbish,
i Remnant of Camblet.
i Pipe Case.

3 Bundles of Sealing Wax.

14 Small Pictures.

8 Pairs of Bristol Stone Buttons.

Mahogany Beauroe
1 Silver Buckle.

14 Pieces fine Black Ribbon.

9 do. Damag'd Cloth.

1 Pair of Gloves.

1 Japan Cord Box with Counters.

1 Bundle of Cards.

1 do. of Rubbish and old Linen.

Fourth Chest

1 Piece of Longcloth.

2 do. Handkerchiefs.

Linnen Cloths.

First Godown

I Chest Sower Claret.

1 Pipe Madeira Wine.

1 do. Lisbon Wine.

2 Hogsheads of Beer.

1 Case of Cordial.

1 Chest with some Claret.

2 do. with some Madeira.

5 Bottles Brandy

150 do. damag'd Wine.

Second Godown

3 Small Cases Brandy.

1 Chest containing Hock and Brandy.

Ml MSTfiy

THE NABOBS

Fourth Godown

75 Wine Glasses and Tumblers.

6 Baskets of China Ware.

1 Pipe of Sherry.

2 Hogsheads of Beer,
i Smoothing Iron.

i Tea Kettle.

i Fire Stove, Shovel, etc.

i Small Parcel Cookroom Furniture.

130 Bottles Sower Wines.

1 Quarter Cask of Brandy.

1 Large Ramsingy.

1 Musquet.

Fifth Godown

55 Pieces Dacca Cloth.

2 Tubes Sugar Candy.

3 Pieces Damag’d Camblets.

1 Chest of Lumber from Tergony.

14 Mahogany Chairs.

2 Small Looking Glasses.

19 Small Pictures.

4 Baskets of Glass and China Wares.

13 Bottles Madeira Wine.

2 Baskets of Pipes.

4 Purdars.

63 Pieces of Linnen from the Washerman.

1 Iron Treasure Chest.

22 Table Cloths and Sheets.

1 Bed Palankeen.

1 Chair do. with Silver Nails.

1 Old Chair Palankeen.

2 Horses.

1 Deer, 15 Hogs and 4 Oxen.

1 Pair false Earrings.

1 Pair Pistols.

1 Box of Tobacco.

3 Chests containing Wine.

Books (see Appendix C.)

VIII. Selection from the Inventory of Major James Kilpatrick, 8 Nov.
1757 (Bengal Inventories , I, p. 90 , 2nd section).

4 pair scarlet breeches.

4 pair black breeches.

4 Hats (with gold and silver lace).

47 pairs Breeches (Gingham).

97 pairs stockings.

58 Old Shirts.

161 New Shirts.

37 Neckcloths.

3 pair long Drawers.

79 Wastcoats.

3 Quilted Banyan Coats.

42 Handkerchiefs.

A Suit of Musketo. Curtains.

12 Sneakers.

15 Curry Plates.

Many Gold and Silver Joys.

miSTQy.

APPENDIX

Liquors, etc.

A Chest containing 97 bottles Madeira wine.

Do. do. 116 bottles Orange Shrub.

Do. do. 13 dozen brown Arrack.

Do. do. 8 dozen white Arrack.

28 bottles Goa Arrack.

48 bottles Mango Shrub.

A Leaguer containing 115 \ gallons Batavia Arrack.

A Hogshead English Beer.

925 Empty Bottles.

A Dried Salmon.

IX. Selection from the Inventory of Capt. David Graham, deceased, 4 Sept.
1756 {Bengal Inventories, I).

A Gold Watch.

A Gold headed Cane.

10 White Banyan Shirts.

6 Striped ditto.

10 pair of coarse Stockings.

A Silver Toothpick Case.

7 Caps.

6 Pairs of Short Drawers.

2 Pairs of Silk Stockings.

4 Pairs of Miltons.

1 Quilted Soucie Waistcoat.

4 White Wastcoats.

12 Stocks.

A Blue Broad Cloth Coat.

4 Quilted Caps.

4 Black Silk Wastcoats.

1 Catty of Haysan Tea.

A Free Mason’s Apron.

A Coarse Surat Palimpore.

A Banyan Coat.

A Silk Coat.

Silver Breeches Buckles.

A Silver Twizer Case.

A Pair of Gold Sleeve Buttons.

X Selection from the Inventory of Capt. Thos. Holmes, deceased, 28 Nov.
1758 (Bengal Inventories, I).

Two Pairs Long Drawers.

1 Punch Strainer.

1 Punch Ladle.

A Tongue scraper.

1 Beetle Box inlaid with Tortoizeshell and Silver, mounted
with three Silver Cups and Chunam Spoon
1 Peruke.

1 Slave Boy named Kent.

1 Slave Girl named Johanna.

3 Brick Houses and one Garden.

XI. Selection from the Inventory of Lieut. J. Peter Mustel, deceased, 2 Oct.
1 773 (Bengal Inventories, XIV, no. 43).

1 Bathing Tub, 1 Water Stand.

2 Wooden Stools, 2 rat traps.

Folding Blackwood Card Table.

Rattaned Cot and Curtains.

2 Case3 Arrack, 2 empty Cases.

2 Pigdannies and Chillumchie.

A House and Garden.

WNtST/ty

THE NABOBS

Selection from the Inventory of James Bonwhich, deceased, 30 Aug.
1774 (. Bengal Inventories, XIV).

1 Pair Silk Mosquito Curtains.

1 Pair Muslin ditto.

1 small Thermomiter.

1 Quilted Looce Banyan Coat.

6 pairs Long Drawers.

1 Red Silk Coat with Wastcoat.

2 Blue Silk Coats with Wastcoats.

A Cow and a Calf.

His Wines included :—

22 dozen Port.

11 dozen Madeira.

1 dozen Claret, 21 Bottles of Hock, 9 Bottles Shrub,
6 Bottles Arrack, 4 Bottles Brandy, 1 dozen Bottles
Cape Wine, 2 Bottles Vinegar, 1 Cask of Rum.

1 Philtering Stone.

<SL

XIII. Selection from the Inventory of James Brenner, deceased, 1775
[Bengal Inventories, XIV, no. 80).

1 New Pennace unfinished.

1 Old Budgerow.

3 new Wellock Boats.

Banyan Coats and Long Drawers.

XIV. Selection from the Inventory of Thomas Sheeles, deceased, 4 May 1775
[Bengal Inventories, XIV, no. 82).

Tonguescrapers.

Silver Milk Pot.

Punch Strainer.

A Lady’s Fan.

Silk Long Drawers.

10 dozen, 3 Bottles Cyder in a Chest.

A pair of French Horns.

A Billiard Table.

A Bathing Tub.

XV. Selection from the Inventory of Nicholas Weller. Public Auction,
18 Feb. 1775 [Bengal Inventories, XIV).

8 Night Capps.

1 Chintz Banyan Coat.

2 pair of Ruff Worsted Breeches.

3 Striped Silk Long Drawers.

1 Free Mason's Medol.

Gold Buttons.

1 Pocket Chess Board.

2 Teapoys.

1 Buggy and Horse with Harness.

3 Turkeys, 2 Cocks, 1 Hen.

3 Geese.

4 Ducks.

1 Garden Bungelow.

XVI. Selection from the Inventory of George Wood, filed 13 Oct. 1775
[Bengal Inventories, XIV, no. 63).

5 Blue and 2 Red Cloth Coats.

8 Silk Wastcoats.

5 Pahs old Sattin Breeches.

WNlSTfty

APPENDIX

2 pairs new Cloth do.

15 pairs Silk do.

20 Banian Shirts.

22 Wastcoats.

20 pairs Breeches.

4 pairs Long Drawers.

1 Banian Coat.

21 Caps.

3 pairs Gloves.

1 Shawl Wastcoat.

2 old ditto.

33 pairs Stockings.

6 Pairs Silk Stockings.

3 Pairs Black ditto.

1 Pair Knee and Shoe Buckles.
1 Pinchback Watch.

XVII. Selection from the Inventory of Mrs. Anne Nowlan, taken 26 Oct.
l 7 75 {Bengal Inventories, vol. XIV, no. 128).

n Bombay Blackwood Armchairs.

2 Blackwood Couches.

1 Mahogany Bereau and Glass Bookcase.

1 Small Blackwood Cott with Curtain Posts.

1 Beetle Box Silver mounted.

1 Dressing Glass without a Glass, and a Board to Tye Shawls.

2 Large Brass Cuspidores. (Spittoons)

1 Chiilemchy and a Gooty.

1 Chafing Dish and a Tea Kettle.

1 Massaul and a Teldanny.

1 Pistoll and Mortar.

32 Bottles Brandy.

20 do. Madeira.

33 Plates.

5 Sneakers.

9 Enamell China Copper Saucers and 1 Cuspidore.

2 China Teapotts.

3 do. Milk Potts and Caucers.

3 Brown Teapotts.

2 Rose Water Bottles.

1 Iron Snuffer and Stand.

2 Persia Rosewater Bottles with Some Rose water.

1 Chair Palankeen.

1 Pegue Jarr with Some Sugar Candy.

1 Silver Teapott.
i Small Salver.

Jewels (complete list)

1 Small Diamond Ring with 2 Sparkes.

2 Small Ruby Rings.

1 Chrystall Ring.

15 large and small Gold Rings.

4 Tamback Rings.

3 false Hoop Rings.

5 false Stone Rings.

1 Pearl Necklace of 4 Strings.

1 do. smaller and do." with Garnetts.

1 pair Bracelets mounted on Gold.

1 pair do. do. with Mallabar Stones.

1 Pair Gold Chain Bracelets each containing 4 Strings.
1 pair Gold Braceletts containing 22 Beads.

THE NABOBS

i Gold Necklace containing 6 Strings with a Solitore.
i do. do. Chain do. 4 Strings,
i do. do. Chain for Neck, 3 do.

1 do. Rosario.

1 Sett containing 8 Gold Buttons for Choly and Sleeves.

1 do. do. 10 do. with Mallabar Stones.

1 Large Gold Sprigg with Small Pearl.

1 Small do. workt.

1 Smaller do.

3 pairs Gold Earrings mounted with Pearl.

1 Small Gold Solitore.

4 Paste Pinns.

1 pair Paste Earrings.

1 Sett Silver Patte Buttons for Wastcoat and Silver Chain.

1 Ivory Scrutore.

Clothes (complete list)

1 Red Embroidered Silk Petticoat.

1 Red Satin Laced Petticoat.

1 Light Blue Silk Petticoat.

1 Crimson Cassimbuzaar do.

3 Black Petticoats.

3 old and 3 new Shawls.

8 Marchoys, Gingham, Silk and Patna, Chintz, Old and New

Petticoats.

4 White Petticoats.

24 Bajues, flower'd. Plain and Dooreas.

1 Gauze Bajue.

1 Bodlaw do.

18 Cholies flower'd. Plain and Dooreas.

17 Madrass Red flower'd Old and New Handkerchiefs.

19 White Bordered, Blue, flowered and Silk Handkerchiefs.
19 Half Handkerchiefs for Head.

9 pairs Stockings Old and New.

16 White and Gingham pellocases.

4 Sheets, 2 Tow ells.

3 Sarrys.

1 Curtain, 2 Pallampores Surat, and 3 Madrass do. old and

new.

2 pairs Red flower'd Damasks.

1 do. Crimson Sattin.

1 do. Blue do.

3 pairs Slippers.

1 Slave Girl.

WlST/fy

APPENDIX C

SELECT BOOK LISTS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

A selection from book lists found in the Home Miscellaneous Series
of the India Office, the Bengal Public Despatches, the India Office Series of
Inventories, and printed sources, is here given in order to provide some
illustration of the mind of the eighteenth century Englishman in India.

I. Selection from the * Catalogue of Books in the Library of Fort St.
George, with the letters and numbers of their places . Sept. I 7 I 9 »
(India Office, Home Miscellaneous Series, 260)

(i) Hebrew and Arabic Boohs, etc.

23 Books including a Polyglot Bible and various Lexicons.

(ii) Greek Books

75 books, including :—

The New Testament (1632).

The Greek and Latin Works of Stobai (1609).

Aristotle's Opera Philosophia (1590).

Select Dialogues of Plato.

Tragedies of Sophocles.

Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History.

Some Early Greek Fathers, as
Justin’s Apologia (1703).

Ignatius' Epistles (1680).

4 Works of Chrysostom.

Clement of Alexandria (1556).

(iii) Latin Books. 357 books.

These were chiefly theological, and included :—

St. Augustine's Works.

Luther’s Opera in 7 vols.

Boem’s Encherideon precum.

Tertullian’s Opera.

Th. Beza’s New Testament (Cambridge, 1642).

Calvin’s Opera Omnia, and 16 separate works, including the
* Institutiones ' (Geneva, 1508).

Three Works of Erasmus.

The following were included among the general Latin books :

* Antiquitas Academiae Cantabrigiensis.’

Bacon's Novum Organum, Sermones Ethici, Politici, Ocono-
mici Amstel, and Historia Regni Henrici VII.

Descartes' Opera Pliilosophica.

Grotius’ De Jure Belli et Pacis.

Two Universal Histories.

Justinian’s Institutes.

Livy’s History.

Martial’s Epigrams and Vergil.

(iv) English Books. 698 books.

A very large number were theological, of which the following are
a selection :—

Bishop Andrews’ Sermons, etc.

Anabaptists, several sorts described.

x8y

misr/j

THE NABOBS

Bishop Atterbury's Sermons.

Bishop Burnet—6 vols,, but not the ' History of His Own
Times.*

Baxter's Call to the Unconverted.

Bp. Cosin's History of Transubstantiation.

3 English Bibles and i Welsh with the Book of Common
Prayer.

Bishop Offspring Blackball. 3 works.

The Icon Basilike.

Calamy's Sermons.

The Catechumen or the Young Person instructed for the
Holy Sacrament.

Bp. Wilson's Christ's Sufferings and Descent into Hell.
Culverwell’s Light of Nature, etc.

Cud worth’s Intellectual System of the Universe.

The Cure for Enthusiasm.

Fuller's Holy War.

Bishop Hall's Works.

Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity.

Bishop Ken’s Exposition of the Catechism.

Luther on Galatians.

Laud's Life.

Andrew Marvell’s Growth of Popery, etc.

The Romish Horsleech or Popery's intolerable Charge to the
Nation, and several anti-papalist works.

The Religio Medici.

Bishop Pearson on the Creed.

Bishop Stillingfleet’s Sermons and Works.

Seven works of Dr. Sherlock.

Thomas a. Kerapis (translated).

Dr. South's Sermons.

Strype's Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer.

Archbishop Tillotson. 5 works.

The following is a selection of the secular works in English : —
Bacon's Advancement of Learning.

Brathwaite's Nursery for Gentry (3 copies).

Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy.

Six Scientific Tracts of Boyle.

Bayle's Defence of Descartes' ' De Anima Brutorum.'
Caesar’s Commentaries.

Mr. Collier's Immorality of the Stage (With an Answer).
Customs of Tonnage and Poundage, etc.

Education, specially for Young Gentlemen.

Sir R. Filmer on Usury.

Hobbes' Leviathan.

Hakluyt's Voyages.

The Right Way to Preserve Life and Health.
Parliamentary Journals of Queen Elizabeth.

Sir Matthew Hale's Discourses.

Lucian's Dialogues, vols. 2 and 4.

Locke's Essay in the Human Understanding.

The Anatomy of Melancholy.

Malebranche’s Search after Truth.

Bernier’s Revolution in the Moghul Empire.

Machiavelli’s Works.

Milton's History of Britain (but no Paradise Lost) .
Purchas' Voyages.

Plutarch's Lives

APPENDIX

Peacham’s Complete Gentleman, with the Order of an Army
in Battle.

Sir Walter Raleigh’s History of the World.

Shakespeare’s Plays.

Thevenot’s Travels.

Whiston’s Josephus.

The Young Man’s Guide (bound up with ' A Word to Saints').

(v) French and Dutch Books, etc. 48 books.

They included : —

La Vie do Borromeo.

Nouvelles de Bocace.

A Spanish Bible.

A Book of Devotions in High Dutch.

An English Liturgy (trans. into Portuguese).
The Psalms in Portuguese.

The Life of Turenne.

La V<hiti£ de la Religion Catholique.

(vi) ‘ Books translated into yc Tamilie (or Malabars) and into ye
Gentou Languages.’ (Complete List)

The Bible and New Testament in Tamil.

The Bible in Gentou.

The Catechism (In Malabar and Portuguese).

The Cathecism and Christian Doctrine explained.

Sancta Caena Institutio ante area et post receptionem.

Ad Gentiles onines epistola.

Grammatica Malabaria.

GentiUsmi Abominatio.

Mores sive Ethiei Christiani.

Psalmi Davidi in lingua Tamilia.

Salvatio per Christum.

Thcologica Thetica sive dogmata ad Satulem necessaria.
Hymnalogia Tamilica.

Selection from the books of the Rev. Thomas Consett in the Fort St.

George Library, Oct. 1729 (Home Miscellaneous Records , 260).

(i) Hebrew Books, etc. 25 vols.

(ii) Greek Books. 57 vols.

They included seven works of Aristotle, Chrysostom, Epic¬
tetus, and the Orthodoxa Confessio Ecclesiae Ruthenicae.

(iii) Latin Books. 231 vols.

Classical and theological authors were well mixed, amongst
them being the following :—

The Works of Vergil, Suetonius, Terence, Sallust, Plautus,
Pliny and Plutarch.

Milton's Life of Cromwell.

Martial's Epigrams.

Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae.

(iv) English Books. 283 vols.

Theological works are again very prominent and include all
shades of thought. They included works by Calamy, Baxter,
Calvin, the Caroline divines, and the Latitudinarians (Burnet,
Stillingfleet, Hoadly and Sherlock). Also ‘ The Present State
of the Church in Russia, with a Collection of Several Russian
Tracts ’.

VIQNV 4°

THE NABOBS

Among the general books were the following:—Milton's Paradise
Lost, The Clergyman’s Companion in Visiting the Sick, and The
Polite Gentleman.

(v) French, Highc and Low Dutch Books. 21 vols.

III. Among the items of expenditure at Calcutta between April 1755 and
June 1756, were the following :—

Law Books. Rs. 242-13-3.

Divinity Books. Rs. 175-2-3.

(J. Long, Selections froyn the Unpublished Records of the
Government, etc., p. 186, Calcutta Proceedings, 20 Sept. 1759)

IV. Books bequeathed by Eliz. Thomlinson, widow of Chaplain Thomlinson,
in 1720 {Bengal Consultations, IV, pp. 214-15).

The books included :—

3 vols. of Sherlock's Works.

6 vols. of Dr. Offspring Blackhall’s Works.

2 vols. of Dr. Tillotson's Works.

The Whole Duty of Man.

6 vols. of Clarendon’s History.

Her Latin, Greek and Hebrew books were bequeathed to the
Church of Calcutta.

V. Selection from the Books of Nicholas Clarembault, Esq., died 18 Nov.
1755 {India Office Inventories, I, pp. 30-4, Second Series).

(i) Books in Foreign Languages

Memoires de la Bourdonnaye.

Histoire de Jean de Bourbon.

5 vols. of de Thevenot’s Travels.

8 vols. of Molidre.

1 vol. of Racine.

Histoire des Grands Maitres de Rhodes.

5 Occurres de Rabelais.

Voltaire's Henriade.

La Mothe’s Iliade.

Contes de la Fontaine.

T&emarque.

3 Nouvelles Saintes Bibles.

8 odd Italian volumes.

In all there were over 40 French and one Dutch book.

(ii) English Books

They included —

Harris’ Collection of Voyages.

Thucydides by Hobbes.

Dr. Taylor's Life of Christ.

2 vols. of Sir William Temple.

4 different European Dictionaries.

8 vols. of Plutarch.

2 vols. of Dion Cassius.

4 vols. of Hebrew Antiquities.

3 vols. of the History of China.

Locke's Essay in the Human Understanding.

Dampier's Voyages.

Hamilton’s Voyages.

The Danish Missionaries at Tranquebar.

Shaftesbury's Characteristics.

A Treatise on Music and Happiness.

MIN/Sr^

APPENDIX

8 vols. of the Spectator.

Addison’s Travels in Italy.

3 vols. of the Freethinker.

The Guardian.

Shakespeare (2 sets).

6 vols. Dryden’s Plays.

Gay’s, Pope’s and Thompson's Works.

Clarke's Boyle Lectures.

One Large Bible.

In all there were seventy separate entries of English books,
in addition to a large number of pamphlets and broken sets, all
however, * much Damag’d by Worms and Ratts ’.

VI. Selection from the Books of William Belcher, died 9 May 1757, at Fort
St. George {Inventories, I, 2nd section, pp. 26-7).

Boyle’s Works.

Tillotson’s Works.

Anson's Voyage.

2 vols. of the Spectator.

Whiston’s Philosophy.

Newton's Opticks.

Horace’s Epistles.

The Busy Body.

Naphet on Foods.

Shaftesbury’s Works.

24 Books of Music.

In all there were 31 items.

VII. Selection from the Books of James Bonwich, 30 August 1774 [Bengal
Inventories , XIV).

15 vols. of the London Magazine.

Military Transactions of Hindustan.

Sterne's Sentimental journey.

Belisarius.

VIII. Selection from the Books of James Brenner. 1775 (Bengal Inven¬
tories, XIV, no. 80).

Bach's Periodical Overtures.

Abel's Six Symphonies.

Pugnani’s Six Overtures.

Handel's Overtures in 4 Books.

Correlli’s 12 Sonatas in 3 Books.

Handel’s Sampson and Esther.

Handel's 12 Grand Concertos.

Herschel’s Six Sonatas.

Other music books filled about two pages in the Inventory
Books. There were about 200 other books, which included :—
Tristram Shandy.

Montesquieu's Esprit des Lois.

Rousseau's Emile.

T£l£marque.

Butier’s Hudibras.

Milton’s Works.

Jones’ Persian Grammar.

IX. Selection of Books on Sale in Calcutta, 7 Oct. 1784 (Seton-Kerr :
Selections from the Calcutta Gazettes, 1784 1823, ed. 1864).

Orme's History of the late War in Hindustan.

Burleigh's State Papers.

THE NABOBS

Richardson’s Persian Dictionary.

Blackstone’s Commentary.

Pkillidore on Chess.

Chesterfield’s Letters.

Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary.

Abbd Raynal’s Revolution in America.

Voltaire’s Age of Louis XIV and XV.

Voltaire’s Memoirs.

Arabian Nights Entertainment.

Whiston’s Josephus.

X. Selection of books advertised for sale from the Library in Calcutta,
1785 (The India Gazette, 31 Jan. 1785).

Richardson's Persian Dictionary.

Chippendale's Designs of Household Furniture.

Boyle's Works.

Hawkins History of Music.

Raynal’s Histoire des Indes.

Hume's History of England.

Locke’s Works.

Priestley’s Works.

Johnson’s Poets. (68 vols).

Annual Register, 1758-82.

XL Sir John Shore, who w*as an Evangelical, mentions in a letter to Charles
Grant (9 March 1796), that his reading consisted of the following :—

The New Testament.

Warburton’s Divine Legation.

Jortin’s Ecclesiastical History.

Paley's Evidences.

Jortin's Sermons ‘ over and over '.

And other like books.

rtiMsr^

APPENDIX D

SELECTION OF EUROPEAN CRIMES IN BENGAL, 1766-1800

These are taken from the series of Records in the India Office labelled
Europeans in India. Volumes I-XXIV are detailed accounts of the cases, and
volume XXV contains concise summaries. They are very valuable as throwing
further light on the problem of the ' Low Europeans '. The cases given below
will all be found summarized in volume XXV.

1776* Case of Vernon Duffield, a dismissed officer.

Edward Deake.

J ames McKee.

These men were apprehended by the Faujdar of Chaperal while
trying to enter Oudh dressed as Moors. They threatened him with
violence, and then defied the Patna Chief, Le Sage, at Bankipore. The
matter was debated in Council, where (it is interesting to note) Hastings
and Francis were outvoted by Barwell, Clavering and Monson. The
majority released them on their expressing contrition and engaging never
to enter Oudh.

II- 1787. Case .of John Thomas.

This man came out to India as the servant of a Captain. He left
his service and stayed on in Calcutta without leave. There he set up an
arrack shop inside the Maratha ditch, where he corrupted soldiers 4 in
every kind of drunkenness and debauchery'. He was ordered to be sent
home by the next ship due to sail, the 4 Oxford

HI- 1788. Case of A Mason,

Two Carpenters,

Two Tailors,

A Horsedealer.

They were sent down from Patna to Calcutta, having proved very
troublesome on account of their belief that the judges had no power to
touch them. They had been involved in frequent disputes with the
local inhabitants, and as they possessed no licence of residence they were
ordered to be sent home.

1V - 1789. Case of Allen.

He posed as a merchant. He was sent to Calcutta by the Collector
of Chittagong on the complaint of Ensign Shrrrock, whose Indian mistress
be had seduced, robbed and turned adrift. He was ordered to be detained
by the Town Major as an unlicensed vagabond European.

^ • x 794 * Case of John Adams.

He was a 4 young, good-looking man ' who spoke English. French,
Italian, Spanish and Portuguese well. In 1789 he was taken for murder
at Cox’s Bungalow, but was sent ashore at Culpee (outside the Company’s
dominions). He reappeared in Calcutta but was released on giving secu¬
rity to leave by a Portuguese ship. He then joined the ship of Captain
Wilson as a carpenter and when the fraud was discovered he threatened
the Captain with murder. He was sent back to Calcutta at the end of

195

THE NABOBS

1792, when he was ordered to go home on the packet ‘ Tartar
Wilson). The crew refused to sail with a murderer, however, and he was
then sent on to the ‘ Lansdowne’, from which he again escaped. In
Oct. 1794 he was again charged with fraud by Capt. Wilson and was
ordered to be sent home by the next ship.

1795. Case of Burglary.

Three men were convicted of burglary by the Nizamat Adalat. They
were sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to transportation
to England with a threat of execution if they returned.

1796. Case of Richard and John Johnson.

These men were indigo planters who were accused of ill-treatment
of ryots on the strength of evidence which had been tendered for the
prosecution in the course of a trial of three of them for theft. The Court's
report, sent through Mr. James Stuart, Deputy Regis of the Nizamat
Adalat of Tirhut, accused them of the following :— 4 illegal exertion of
magisterial authority by putting the prisoners Bholah and Mussumant
Bussee (Bholah’s wife) in irons, confining them on the stocks, flogging
Bholah, putting them in fear of their lives, and finally publicly exposing
the said Bholah and his wife Busseiah by beat of Dowl (drum) on asses
with their faces towards the animals’ tails, through the division of the
neighbouring villages ’.

The villagers refused to proceed against the Johnsons, but at the trial
the prosecution witnesses corroborated the story. The local court was
unable to deal with this case, and the only remedy lay before the Court
of Circuit or the Criminal Court at Calcutta, neither of which was prac¬
ticable for a villager. The two Johnsons were ordered to Calcutta within
seven days, and were forbidden to return to their estate. Richard John¬
son was convicted of an ‘ assault on natives * at the Supreme Court in
January 1797.

VIII. 1796. Case of William Orby Hunter.

This man was an indigo-planter in Tirhut (village Mirzaffapur) and
was accused of cruelty against three girls of low caste in the service of
‘ Bhangwannah Kowar, with whom Mr. Hunter cohabited as his Bibbee.’

The charge against Hunter is thus stated in the official summary.
The three girls ' had had their noses, ears and hair cut off, and one of
them her tongue cut out. That they had fetters put on their feet, that
they were wounded in their private parts, and were affected with the
venereal disease (of which disease Mussammant Kinojee, who was brought
to the magistrate in a litter, afterwards died in Tirhoot), and that they had
been otherwise treated with great cruelty. It was alleged by all the
females that they had been forcibly violated by Mr. Hunter, and one of
them stated that she had, under a sense of the dishonour, attempted to
drown herself in a well ’.

This statement was made before a magistrate, and the facts do not
seem to have been disputed. Hunter, however, placed the blame on the
bibbee, 'while the bibbee maintained that the cruelties had been carried
out by Hunter’s express orders. The Governor-General, not believing all
the evidence, ordered a trial in Calcutta. In December 1796* true bills
were found against both. On 10 Jan. 1797, they were convicted in the
case of the first girl. On 16 Jan. Hunter put in an affidavit pleading
ruinous expense of the prosecution, and the Court finally allowed a settle¬
ment to be made with the prosecutrix. Sicca Rs. 1,000 were to be paid
to each of the girls, which were to be invested and paid out to them at
their marriage. Hunter was found guilty of all the counts of the indict¬
ment, and the bibbee of all but one. Hunter was given a fine of Rs. 100,
and the bibbee six months imprisonment (of which five months had
already expired) and a fine of one rupee.

MIN isr/fy.

APPENDIX

A^PJcJNlJIA. igy

I 797 - Case of a Punch House Keeper.

A man, his wife and two sons, after serving a sentence of trans¬
portation in Botany Bay, arrived in Calcutta and set up a Punch House.
Besides acting as a crimp, he arranged with the merchant captains for the
impressment of men, and after delivering them, arranged for their deser¬
tion again. The whole family was deported.

§L

j 7Q8. Case of a Journalist.

A young man in the office of the Telegraph, who had printed a libel
on Wellesley signed 4 Mentor' without the permission of the paper,
was sent back to England.

XI. 1798. Case of Ramsay, alias Ramsden, alias Kelly.

This man was sent to Calcutta from Serampore by the Danish Govern¬
ment, where he had taken refuge for debt. They reported that he was
frequently absent at Patna, engaged in the liquor trade, but that as he
always left Serampore with very little and returned with a fully laden
boat, * in a battered condition 1 and 4 very much bruised and wounded *,
he was suspected of irregularities.

The Town Adjutant reported that he had escaped from the Town
Prison by undermining the walls, and had later escaped from a ship to
which he had been sent by Sir John Shore. He was ordered to be sent
to Europe, and ‘ to be put in irons if necessary ’.

XII. 1798. Case of a Punch House Keeper.

This man, with a confederate, seized men belonging to one ship and
transferred them to another in order to get impress money. On discovery
he was sent home, but his confederate, who had a post in the Sheriff’s
office, was allowed to stay on furnishing security.

XIXI. 1799. Case of Two Journalists.

They were the editors of the Asiatic Mirror and the Relator ; they
were sent home as their policy was displeasing to the Governor-General
(Lord Wellesley).

Xl\. 1799. Case of William and Ann Smith.

The couple kept a disorderly Punch House. On being ordered home
Smith barricaded himself in his house and shot a sepoy, who died. In
January 1800 he was convicted of murder and executed.

14

VION' i°

APPENDIX E

EUROPEAN AND INDIAN MUTUAL OPINIONS

I. EUROPEAN OPINIONS

A. General

1. Manucci. Storia do Mogor, II, p. 452.

‘ Never are they (Indians) ready to listen to reason; they are very
troublesome, high and low, without shame, neither having the fear of
God. The Hindus who turn Mohammedan are the worst of all; these are
ordinarily the most insolent, the greatest talkers, and held in no considera¬
tion. As for Europeans who come to India, they must arm themselves
with great patience and prudence, for not a soul will speak to them, this
being the general attitude of India. Although they are deceivers, selfish,
contumacious and unworthy of belief, we are abhorred by the lower
classes, who hold us to be impure, being themselves worse than pigs.’

2. Sieur Luillier. A Voyage to the East Indies (1702), p. 285.

4 Indians are a very sober People and effeminate, yet strict Observers
of their Religion. They are extremely covetous of Money, which is not
over plentiful in India ; and so predominate is this Avarice, that there is
nothing they will not do, nor any Torments they will refuse to endure for
it; so that we need not admire if they suffer what has been said on that
Account.* ,

3. Letter of the Court to Madras, 4 Feb. 1708, par. 35 {Home Misc.
Series, 46, p. 233).

‘ It is too sad a truth that the Natives who first admired the Europeans
for their innocency, should now by their examples have grown so crafty.'

4. Dr. Ives. A Voyage to India (1754). P- 4^-

He said that Indians were ‘ very quiet inoffensive people *. They
were honest inland but on the coast their dishonesty was the fault of
tricky Europeans. He specially noted the washing of the Hindus, and
said of Indian servants— 4 They are an artful cunning people, and very
ready at inventing an answer \

5. Clive. Forrest, Life of Clive, II, p. 120 (Letter of 30 Dec. 1758).

* This rich and flourishing kingdom may be totally subdued by so
small a force as two thousand Europeans, and the possession thereof
maintain'd and confirmed by the Great Mogul upon paying the Sum of

, 50 Lacks per annum paid by former soldiers.*

6. J. Z. Holwell (Quoted by Forbes, Oriental Memoirs, II, p. 457).

* Gentoos in general are as degenerate, crafty, superstitious and
wicked a people as any race in the known world, if not eminently more so,
especially the common run of Brahmins.’

7. Mrs. N. E. Kindersley. Letters from the East Indies, p. 132.

* The / are gentle parient, temperate, regular in their lives, charitable
and strict observers of their religious customs. They are superstitious,
effeminate, avaricious, and crafty, deceitful and dishonest in their dealings
and void of every principle of honour, generosity and gratitude.’

iq8

MIN ISTfiy

APPENDIX ig\j

They are the most tedious people in the world . . . they have^

ethod of putting everything off till to-morrow; when it is found out.
as it often is, that they have told an untruth, they have no shame for it,
but immediately tell another and another. Nothing can huny them ;
nothing can discompose them or put them out of count, nothing can make
them angry ; provided their gains are sure, the master may fret to find
his business go on slowly, may abuse them for want of honesty, may argue
with them for their ingratitude, may convict them of falsehood and double
dealing ; it signifies nothing; the same mild and placid countenance
remains, without the least symptoms of fear, anger or shame.’ (pp. 129-130)

8. 1764. Niebuhr. Journal of Travels to Arabia and the East, p. 13.

Niebuhr found the Hindus ‘ doux, vertueux, et laborieux *, who
* are among men those who least seek to do wrong to their neighbour ’.
They were ‘ the most tolerant nation in the world ’, but 4 no nation was
less sociable than these Hindus’.

9* 1768. Major Rennell. Diary, Home Misc. Series, 765, p. 182

(20 Jan. 176S).

4 ’Tis a mistake to conclude that the natives of Hindustan want
courage . . . With respect to passive courage the Inhabitants of

these Countries are perhaps possessed of a much larger share of it than
those of our own. To see them under Misfortune you would conclude that
they had no passions . . . The Bengali People certainly suffer Pain

and misfortune with much greater Philosophy than Europeans do. *xis
remark’d that among an equal number of wounded Persons of both
Countreys, the blacks recover in a proportion of six to one.’

10. 1769. Eliza Sterne. Letter from Tellicherry, June 1769
(Sterne’s Eliza, p. 98).

4 The Brahmins are very easy, plain, unaffected sons of simple nature
—there's a something in their Conversation and Manners that exceedingly
touches me ; the Nairs are a proud, Indolent, Cowardly but very hand¬
some people and the Tivies excellent soldiers in the Field, at Storming or
entering a Breach, the latter seems as easy to them as stepping into a
closet.'

11. 1770. de Pag6. Travels round the World, II, p. 41.

The Brahmins were ‘ of unaffected simple manners, gentle, regular
and temperate in the whole conduct of their lives

12. 1770. John Macdonald. Travels in various parts of Europe,
Asia and Africa, p. 230.

4 If God excused the Rechabites, how much more shall he excuse
Gentoos; who had no Bible ? ’

13* Robert Orrne. History of Military Transactions in Hindustan,
PP* 5 - 6 .

4 An abhorrence to the shedding of blood, derived from his religion,
and seconded by the great temperance of a life which is passed by most
?f them in a very sparing use of animal food, and a total abst inence of
intoxicating liquors ; the influence of the most regular of climates, in
which the great heat of the sun and the great fertility of the soil lessen
most of the wants to which the human species is subject in austerer
regions, and supply the rest without the exertion of much labour : these
causes, with various consequences from them, have all together contributed
to make the Indian the most enervated inhabitant of the globe.

‘ He shudders at the sight of blood, and is of a pusillanimity only to
be excused and accounted for by the great delicacy of Ins configuration.

15*

Miwsr^

THE NABOBS

<8L

This is so slight as to give him no chance of opposing with success the onset
of an inhabitant of more northern regions.'

14. Mrs. Fay. 1780. Letters from India, pp. 162-3.

‘ I wish these people would not vex me with their tricks ; for there is
something in the mild countenances and gentle manners of the Hindoos
that interests me exceedingly.’

15. 1780. Innes Munro. Narrative of Military Operations, etc., 1780,
pp. 67 and 100.

He considered that Indians were extremely lazy. Ease was their
chief luxury ; they could not understand the European love of exercise.
He quotes the maxim ' It is better to walk than to run ; to sit than to
stand; but lying is best of all \ On p. 100 he speaks of ‘ the pusillanimous
disposition of these unfortunate natives ’.

16. 1782. Hodges. 1 Travels in India, p. 34.

He comments very favourably on the simplicity, cleanliness and
courtesy of the Hindus, and on the grand manners of the Mussulman
gentlemen.

17. 1790. The Commissioner of Police (in a report). Love, Vestiges
of Old Madras, III, p. 484.

‘ We may venture to say that the inhabitants of Madras, down to the
lowest orders, are not to be surpassed in Acuteness at any call of interest.

18. 1790. Le Couteur. Letters from India, p. 336.

* Indians are in general effeminate, lazy and cowardly ; but their
vices have with no great reason been attributed to the effects of the
Glimate in which they live . . .

19. David Brown. Simeon, Memoir of the Rev. D. Broom, p. 55.

* Utter disgust, intermingled with the greatest pity, seemed to be
the result in Mr. Brown’s mind, of the knowledge he had acquired, in his
investigation of the filthy and sanguinary frivolity of the debased religion
and of its baneful influence on the principles and morals of its votaries.

20. William Carey. Serampore Letters, p. 62, 1794.

The Hindus were ' literally sunk into the dregs of vice. 'Tis true that
they have not the ferocity of" American Indians, but this is abundantly
supplied with a dreadful stock of low cunning and deceit. Moral rectitude
makes no part of their religious system, and therefore no wonder they arc
sunk, nay wholly immersed, in all manner of impurity '.

21. 1799. Claudius Buchanan. Memoir by the Rev. H. Pearson,
I, p. 176.

He says of Indians ‘ their general character is imbecility of body and
imbecility of mind '.

Forbes, Oriental Memoirs, IV, p. 309, thus quotes Dr. Buchanan.

* Hindoos are destitute of those principles of honesty, truth and justice,
which respond to the spirit of British administration and have not a
disposition Which is in accordance with the tenor of Christian principles.

22. 1800. Major Blakiston. Twelve Years Military Adventures in
Hindustan, II, pp. no-111.

He says of the Hindus in general (from which he excepts the Rajputs
but not the Brahmins) that they have the ' constitutional timidity ' of

.^ann climates, and in addition many vices and few virtues which are the
^result of their system of government. Their virtues are sobriety, patience
and fortitude ; their vices sensuality, avarice, cunning, duplicity and
falsehood. ‘ There is no part of the world,’ he says,' where less atrocious,
crimes are committed.’ He also regrets the paucity of the opportunities
for meeting any but subordinate Indians.

23. 1806. Henry Martyn. Journal , I, p. 449 (20 May).

On going to sec a temple he says : * The cymbals sounded and never
did sounds go through my heart with such horror in my life. ... I
shivered at being in the neighbourhood of hell, my heart was ready to
burst at the dreadful state to which the Devil had brought my poor
fellow creatures.’

24. 1809. Mrs. Graham. Journal of a Residence in India, p. 72.

* These people, if they have the virtues of slaves, patience, meekness,
forbearance and gentleness, have their vices also. They are cunning and
incapable of truth ; they disregard the imputation of lying and perjury,
and would consider it folly not to practise them for their own interest.’

She also speaks of ' traces of the manners and simplicity of the
antique ages ’.

2 5 * 1813. Lord Hastings. Private Journal, I, p. 30.

‘ The Hindoo appears a being nearly limited to mere animal functions
and even in them indifferent. Their proficiency and skill in the several
lines of occupation to which they are restricted, are little more than the
dexterity which any animal with similar conformation but with no higher
intellect than a dog, an elephant, or a monkey, might be supposed to be
capable of attaining. It is enough to see this in order to have full con¬
viction that such a people can at no period have been more advanced in
civil polity.’

‘ In Bengal at least they are infantine in everything. Neat and
dexterous in making any toy or ornament for which they have a pattern,
they do not show' a particle of invention.' (p. 66)

26. 1876. H. G. Keene. The Fall of the Moghuls, pp. 21-2.

1 All Asiatics are unscrupulous and unforgiving. The natives of
Hindustan are peculiarly so ; but they are also unsympathetic and un¬
observant in a manner that is altogether their own. From the languor
induced by the climate, and from the selfishness induced by centuries
of misgovemment, they have derived a weakness of will, an absence of
resolute energy, and an occasional audacity of meanness almost unintel¬
ligible in a people so free from the fear of death.’

B. Mussulmans

Dupleix. 1742. Ananda Ranga Pillai, Private Diary, II, p. 307.

In conversation with Pillai he spoke disparagingly of Mohammad,
using expressions like 1 look at these Mohammedan <iogs etc.

2. 1758. Clive. Forrest’s Life of Clive, II, p. 120. Letter dated

30 Dec. 1758.

‘ The Moors as w cll as the Gentoos, are indolent, luxurious, ignorant
and cowardly beyond all conception.'

miST/fy

THE NABOBS

■ These Mussulmans, gratitude they have none, base men of very
narrow conceptions, and have adopted a system of Politics more peculiar
to this Country than any other; viz. to attempt everything by treachery
rather than force.'

<SL

3 1763 Col. Adams, and General Camac. Letter of Adams and

Camac to Gentil offering him Rs. 50,000 to come over. Calcutta Proceedings .
3 Oct. 1763. Long, Selections from unpublished Records, p. 362.

In the course of the letter they say * only necessity could have en¬
gaged you in so dishonourable a service to a Christian as that of the Moors,
who always treat with the grossest cruelty those of our religion and
Europeans when it is in their power to do so with impunity .

4. 1770. de Pag6. Travels round the World, II, p. 4 1 -

The Mussulmans * with all their simplicity, are proud and haughty,
and ever prone to consider themselves in a position superior to other
men %

5. 1772. Hodges. Travels in India, p. 34.

The low class Mussulmans were ‘ haughty not to say insolent ; irri¬
table and ferocious ’. However a * Moorish gentleman may be considered
as a perfect model of a well bred man'.

6. 1800. Major Blakiston. Twelve Years Military Adventures .
II, pp. IIO-II.

He says that the Mussulmans have the same vices and virtues as the
Hindus — sobriety, patience, fortitude, sensuality, avarice, cunmng,
duplicity and falsehood—with the addition of pride.

7. Swartz. Remains and Journals, p. 120 (1768).

* The young Nabob, or the Nabob's second son, who is a genuine
disciple of Mahomet (that is, inclined to cruelty) watches narrowly the
lives of Europeans/

8 . Henry Martyn Journal , II, p. 32. (17 March 1807.)

‘ This is Mahometanism, to murder as infidels the children of God,
and to live without prayer. I have never felt so excited as by this dis¬
pute (on the lawfulness of putting people to death for blasphemy), nor
lelt such terror at this damnable delusion of the devil ; and it followed
me all night in my dreams. Now that I am more cool, I still think that
human nature in its worst appearance is a Mahommedan. Yet, oh may
I so realise the day of judgement that I may now pity and pray for those
whom I shall then see overwhelmed with consternation and rum.

II. INDIAN OPINIONS OF EUROPEANS

1. Sultan Abdullah Qutb Shah. A story reported by Manucci, Storia
do Mogor, IV, p. 93 -

• He (the Sultan) sent word for the slaughter of a stag, and it was
divided into joints. He then ordered the distribution of the pieces, one
to each nation. The Englishman, without waiting until they handed it
to him, laid hold on the biggest piece there was and carried it off. brom
this the King said that this nation loves to take things at its own risk.
The Dutchman held out his hand humbly and accepted the share offered

APPENDIX

Fr °“ it inferred that this nation was one of merchants
^bo *?° u Z h *beir humility have become rich.

if refu . sed his portion, telling his servant he might take

raVwr hlS ^ he Kin & said that this nation was overbearing and would
wainL * ° f h J? ng<a ; tban abandon its dignity. The Frenchman, without
waiting for orders, laid hold of his sword, struck it in two pieces, and
out b JS chest > marched away. Judging from this, the King said
living* S natlon was a valorous one, most generous and fond of good

2. Manucci, Storia do Mogor, III, p. 73.

Ihc Hindus called the Europeans Farangis and believed * that they
ave no polite -manners, that they are ignorant, wanting in ordered life
ana very dirty *

■ P- 3 i 5 - He says that new arrivals in Pondicherry ‘ hold the Farangis
tlie n \vomcn^ Ular aversion ' tumbling at their approach, more especiaUy

• „„ P ' 320 ' The Hindus have ' considerable contempt' for Europeans—

worwf rCat f r than that , of persons of quality in France for night-soil
workers and scavengers . 0

3 - Ananda Ranga Pillai. Diary, I, p. 26 (1740).

h . r He d ^ ribes as an exception M. Delorme, who ‘ made no distinction
? c 1 and P oor » never took a bribe, and treated the native on a
ooting of equality with the European

On the other hand, in II, p. 395, occurs the following :—

. . ° no cannot understand what M. de la Bourdonnais means by
one .thing one day to the Council at Pondicherry and the next
nnH er f 3 lf J* e Was J okin £- Knowing that there is generally concord
, good understanding amongst Europeans, and that they never dis-
r £ r f ee ' cannot see what he means by saying at one time that he has
estorcd Madras, and at another that he has not, and thereby disgracing
^rf FS ‘ ways of Europeans, who used always to act in union, have

apparently become like those of natives and Mohammedans.’

,A- ? mich i nd - Lo “g. Selections, p. 87 (Select Committee's Pro-
ceeamgs, 25 Feb. 1757).

, M ‘- W atts reported from Murshidabad Omichand's opinion of the

years^ ^ V"* ^ living under En 8 Ush Protection for forty

yeais he had never known them break their word, and that if a lie was
proven against them in England ' they were spit upon and never trusted \

Travels in various parts of Europe, Asia

5 . 1771. John Macdonald.

an “ Africa, p. 267.

has rtvfn MuS3Ulm .' inS saidto him ’ ‘ Mr - J° hn - we like you, because God
you do y °“ a tcmper hke a g** 1; we can do everything that we see

6 - Saycd Ghulam Hussain Khan. Seir Mutaqherin, III, pp. 170-1.

concera C !£ at the Eng l lif ). are and absorbed in their own

ncerns, and that they surround themselves with svcopliants

the comnfnv of th' th f- aVerSi °f wt ? ch khe En S Ush °Penly ^ow for
^ , th natl Y es ' and such 1S the disdain that they betray for

non!? “ at no ove and no coalition . . . can take root between
conquerors and conquered \ (p. 1O1) Between

THE NABOBS

<SL

7. 1794. M. Williams, Seramporc Letters, 15 Feb. 1794.

At Debarta in Bengal the villagers ‘ have kept from others because
they think Englishmen worse than tigers \

8. 1798. Mirza Abu Taleb Khan. Travels, ed. by C. Stewart,

I, PP- 51-2.

‘ During this scene (a storm at sea) Mr. Grand, who was of enormous
size, and whose cabin was separated from mine only by a canvas partition,
fell with all his weight upon my breast, and hurt me excessively. What
rendered this circumstance more provoking was, that if, by any accident,
the smallest noise was made in my apartment, he would call out, with all
the overbearing insolence which characterizes the vulgar part of the
English in their conduct to Orientals, “ What are you about ? You don 't
let me get a wink of sleep ! ” and other such rude expressions.’

APPENDIX F

list of records, manuscripts and printed

BOOKS CONSULTED

l manuscript letters and private papers

In the India Office Library
Bengal Despatches.

Bengal Public Consultations.

Bombay Despatches.

Bombay Letters Received.

Madras Letters Received.

Home Miscellaneous Series. (765 vols.)

Factory Miscellaneous Series. (26 vols.)

European Inhabitants in India.

Europeans in India. (25 vols.)

Bengal Inventories. (1755-80)

Bengal Mayor’s Court Proceedings (For Wills).

Or me Papers, 28.

Letters of Major J. Rennell to the Rev. A. Barrington 1761-78. Home'
Miscellaneous Series. *

Letters of C. Martin and J. Duncan to Col. A. Ross 1786-1811. Home
Miscellaneous Series, 741.

Diary of Col. Champion 1764-66. Home Miscellaneous Series, 198.

Lord Macartney’s Correspondence. Home Miscellaneous Series, 246.
Letters to Lee Harcourt at Tellicherry. Factory Miscellaneous Records
vol. 26.

^ le Imperial Record Office, Calcutta

Original Law Consultations (Legislative Dept.), 1704-1810.

Home Miscellaneous Series.

In the British Museum

barren Hastings General Correspondence —Brit. Museum Additional
Manuscripts.

Journal of Col. Upton 1775-6 — Brit. Museum Additional Manuscripts.
Journal of a Voyage to the East Indies 1704-5—Brit. Museum Additional
Manuscripts.

PRINTED RECORDS, COMPILATIONS OF AND SELECTIONS
FROM RECORDS

Sundry Book of 1 680-1. Hughli Letters sent. Ed. H. Dodwell ( Records
of Port St. George ) 1913.

Sundry Book of 1686. Affairs in Bengal. (Records of Fort St. George)
Madras, 1913.

Sundry Book of 1758-9. The Siege of Madras. ( Records of Fort St.
George) Madras, 1915.

105

I

THE NABOBS

<SL

Selections from the Public Consultations, and Letters from Fort St.
David and St. George, 1740. (Records of Fort St. George) Madras,

1916.

S. C. Hill. List of Europeans and others in Bengal in 1756 at the time of the
Siege of Calcutta. Calcutta, 1902.

C. R. Wilson, Old Fort William in Bengal, 2 vols. Indian Record Series,
1906.

C. R. Wilson, Early Annals of the E7iglish in Bengal, 4 vols. London,
1895.

J. Long, Selections from the Unpublished Records of the Government, etc.,
Calcutta, 1869.

H. D. Love, Vestiges of Old Madras, 3 vols.

J. T. Wheeler, Madras in the Olden Time, 3 vols.

III. TRAVELS, VOYAGES AND DESCRIPTIONS

Fra. P. de San Bartolomeo, Voyage to the East Indies 1776-89. I79 2 *

F. Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire, 1656-1668. Oxford, 1891.

C. Biron, Curiositez de la Nature et de Fart, etc. Paris, 1703.

D. Campbell, Journey Overland to India (1781-84). 1796.

J. Capper, Observations on the Passage to India. London, 1784*

Rev. J. Cordiner, A Voyage to India. 1820.

Capt. H. Cornwall, Observations on several Voyages. London, 1720.

C. Cossigny, Voyage au Bengal, etc., en 1789* 2 vols. Paris, 1799-

D’Oyley, Williamson and Blagdon. The European in India. 1813.

C. Duquesne, New Voyage to the East Indies, 1690-1. London, 1696.

W. Francklin, Observations made on a Tour from Bengal to Persia, 1786-7.
London, 1790*

J. Fryer, A New Account of East India and Persia. 3 vols. Hakluyt
Society. London, 1909.

M. L. J. OTPer de Grandpr6, Voyage in the Indian Ocean and to Bengal.
(Eng. trans.) 1814.

T. Grose, Voyage to the East Indies, 2 vols. 1774.

Alex. Hamilton, A New Account of the East Indies, 2 vols. British Museum
copy.

W. Hodges, R.A., Travels in India, 1782-5.

Eyles Irwin, Voyage up the Red Sea, etc. London, 1780.

E. Ives, A Voyage to India. 1754*

J. Johnson, Oriental Voyages. London, 1807.

Journald’un Voyage aux Indes Orientales (1691-2). 3 vols. Rouen, 1721.

C. Lockyer, An Account of the Trade in India, ijn.

Sieur Luillier, A Voyage to the East Indies. London, 1720.

John Macdonald, Travels in various Parts of Europe, Asia and Africa.
London, 1790.

James Macintosh, Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa, 1777-81, 2 vols.

London, 1783. f

Madras Dialogues— l The large and renouned town of Madras, etc. .
Halle, Saxony, 1750.

A. de Mandelslo, Journey to Persia and the Indies. 1669.

Mina Abu Taleb Khan's Travels, 1799-1803, 3 vols. Edited by C.
Stewart. London, 1814.

C. Niebuhr, Journal of Travels to Arabia and the East. French trans.
Amsterdam and Utrecht.

C. Noble, A Voyage to the East Indies, I747" 8 - London, 1762.

APPENDIX 2(£

«£/

^ ‘' r ^P. Oliver, Voyage of F. Leguat (Hakluyt Society). London, 1891.

Rev. T. Ovington, A Voyage to Surat, 1689. 1696. (References given are

to the edition of Ii. G. Rawlinson. O.U.P., 1929.)
de Page, Travels Round the World, 1767-71, 3 vols. London, 1791.

A. Parsons, Travels in Asia and Africa. 1808.

Francisco Pelsaert, Rcmonstrantie. (Trans, by W. H. Moreland and
P. Geyl as Jehangir’s India.) Cambridge, 1925.

Bar. Plaisted, Journal from Calcutta to Busserah. London, 1757.

Sketches of India by an Officer. London, 1821.

M. Sonnerat, A Voyage to the East Indies and China, 1774-81, 3 vols.
Calcutta, 1788.

J- S. StA’orinus, Voyages to the East Indies, 1768-78. Trans, by J. H.
Wilcocke, 3 vols. London, 1798.

Capt. W. Symson, A New Voyage to the East Indies. 2nd edition,
London, 1720.

Major J. Taylor, Travels in India, 1789, 2 vols. London, 1799.

Rev. E. Terry, A Voyage to East India (1616). London, 1777.

T. Twining, Travels in India a Hundred Years Ago. 1893.

Lord Valentia, Travels in India, 3 vols. 1806.

The Editor of the Windham Papers. The Wellesley Papers. 2 vols.
London, 1914.

Thos. Williamson, The East India Vade Mecurn, 2 vols. London, 1810.
Thps. Williamson, Oriental Field Sports, 2 vols. London, 1819.

IV. LETTERS, DIARIES, JOURNALS, NARRATIVES AND MEMOIRS

Major J. Blakiston, Twelve Years Military Adventures in Hindustan (1802-
14). 1829.

The Cornwallis Correspondence, 3 vols.

Abb6 Dubois, Letters on the State of Christianity in India. 1823.

Capt. G. Elers, Memoirs, edited by Lord Monson and G. Leveson-Gower
(1797-1807). 1903.

Mrs. Fay, Letters from India.

Journal of Mrs. Fenton, 1826-30. 1901.

Pifteen Years in India, by an Officer (R. G. Wallace). 1819.

J- Forbes, Oriental Memoirs, 4 vols.

J- B. J. Gentil, Memoires sur l’Hindustan. 1822.

Seid Gholam Hossain Khan, Seir Mutaqherin, 4 vols. Calcutta, 1903.
Sophia Goldburne, Hartley House, Calcutta. 1789.

Maria Graham, Journal of a Residence in India (1809-1811). 2nd edition.
London, 1813.

S- C. Grier, Letters of Warren Hastings to his Wife.

Private Jourv.al of the Marquess Hastings, ed. by the Marchioness of Bute,
2 vols. London, 1858.

Milliam Hickey, Memoirs, 4 vols.

J- Hough, Reply io the Abbt Dubois’ Letters on the State of Christianity in
India. 1824.

Journal of Gen. Sir Martin and Lady Hunter (1802-14). Ed. by Miss
A. Hunter. 1894.

Victor de Jacquemmont, Letters from India, 2 vols. (1S28-31). London,
iu l834 *

^s. N. E. Kindersley, Letters from the East Indies. 1777-
La Fareile, Metncires et Correspondence. (Brit. Museum copy)

misT^

THE NABOBS

<SL

Le Couteur, Letters from India. 1790.

W. C. Macplierson, Soldiering in India, 1764-87. 1928.

N. Manucci, Storia do Mogor, ed. W. Irvine, 4 vols. 1908.

Henry Martyn, Journals and Letters, 2 vols. 1837.

Innes Munro, Narrative of Military Operations on the Coromandel Coast
in 1780. 1789.

Maria, Lady Nugent, Journal of a Residence in India, 1811-15, 2 vols.
London, 1839.

Observations on India (Anonymous). 1853.

Pester John, War and Sport in India, 1802-6. Ed. by J. A. Devenisli.
1913 -

Ananda Ranga Pillai, Private Diary, ed. by H. Dodwell, 10 vols. 1922-5.
P. D. Stanhope, Genuine Memoirs of Asiaticus.

Diaries of Streynsham Master, ed. by Sir R. Temple. Indian Record
Series, 2 vols. 1911.

C. F. Swartz, Remains and Journals. 1826.

J. Taylor, Letters on India. (Camb. Univ. Library)

Rev. W. Tennant, Indian Recreations, 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1803.

A. Townley, Reply to the Abb 6 Dubois' Letters on the State of Christianity in
India. 1824.

Momay Williams, Serampore Letters. 1892.

V. BIOGRAPHIES

S. Pearce Carey, Life of William Carey. London, 1924.

Coupland, Life of Wilber force. 1923.

T. Fisher, Life of Charles Grant. London, 1833.

Sir G. Forrest, Life of Lord Clive, 2 vols. London, 1918.

W. Francklin, Military Memoirs of George Thomas. London, 1805.
Baillie Fraser, Military Memoirs of Col. James Skinner. London, 1851.
S. C. Hill, Life of Claud Martin. Calcutta, 1901.

J. Kaye, Life of Lord Metcalfe, 3 vols.

C. B. Lewis, Life of John Thomas. 1873.

R. J. Mackintosh, Memoirs of Sir J. Mackintosh (1804-10), 2 vols.
London, 1835.

J. Page, Swartz of Tanjore. London, 1921.

Col. H. Pearse, The Hearsays.

Rev. H. Pearson, Memoirs of the Rev. C. Buchanan, 2 vols. Oxford,
1817.

Rev. H. Pearson, Memoirs of C. F. Swartz. 1834.

Charles Simeon, Memoir of the Rev. D. Brown.

J. Sargent, Memoir of the Rev. H. Martyn. 1819.

Teignmouth, Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Lord Teignmouth,
2 vols. London. 1843.

VI. SECONDARY AUTHORITIES AND GENERAL WORKS

Allen and Maclure, History of the S.P.C.K., 2 vols, 1908.

P. Anderson, The English in Western India. 1856.

W. A. J. Archbold, Outlines of Indian Constitutional History. London,

1925.

B. Bannerje, Begam Samru. (Sarkar & Sons) Calcutta, 1925.

A. Broome, History of the Bengal Army, I. 1851.

APPENDIX

E. Busteed, Echoes of Old Calcutta. London, 1908.

H. Carey, Good Old Days of the Hon. John Company. Calcutta, 1906
J. J. A. Campos, History of the Portuguese in Bengal. Calcutta, 1919.
Eyre Chatterton, History of the Church of England in India. London.
H. Compton, Hindustan under the Freelances. 19&7.

Description of the Port and Island of Bombay. 1724.

E. Dewar, Bygone India. 1922.

H. H. Dodwell (ed.) Cambridge History of India, V.

H. H. Dodwell, Nabobs of Madras. 1926.

J. Douglas, Bombay and Western India, I. 1893.

S. M. Edwardes, The Rise of Bombay. 1902.

Elliott and Dowson, History of India as told by its Own Historians, VI
London, 1872.

C. C. Grey and H. L. O. Garrett, European Adventurers in Northern India.
Lahore, 1929.

Rev. W. H. Hart, Old Calcutta. Calcutta, 1895.

J. M. Holtzman, The Nabobs in England, 1760-5. New York, 1926.

Sir \V. W. Hunter, Annals of Rural Bengal.

H. B. Hyde, The Parish of Bengal. Calcutta, 1899.

H. B. Hyde, Parochial A nnals of Bengal. Calcutta, 1901.

The Indo Briton. Bombay, 1849.

H. G. Keene, The Fall of the Moghul Empire. 1S76.

R- N. Law, Promotion of Learning in India by Europeans till 1800. London,

1915.

Er. J. Lind, An Essay on Diseases, etc. London, 1768.

Eiroz Malabari, Bombay in the Making. 1910.

E. Monckton Jones, Warren Hastings in Bengal 1772-5. 1918.

L. S. S. O’Malley, The Indian Civil Service, 1601-1930. London, 1931.
R. Or me, History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in
Hindustan, 2 vols. 1780.

Rev. F. Penny, The Church in Madras, 3 vols. 1904.

J- Richter, History of Missions in India. 1908.

E- T. Sandys, 145 Years at the Old Mission Church, Calc iita. (In Bengal
Past and Present , VIII)

Hon. F. J. Shore, Notes on Indian Affairs, 2 vols. 1857.

A- Stark, Hostages to India. Calcutta, 1926.

E- H. Thornton, Light and Shade in Bygone India, 1927.

Col. W. J. Wilson. History of the Madras Army, 4 vols. 1882.

A. Wright, Early English Adventurers in the East. 1917.

A. Wright and W. L. Sclater, Sterne's Eliza (1757-74). London, 1922.

V *L REFERENCE BOOKS
The Bengal Obituary. 1848.

Castellani and Chambers, Manual of Tropical Medicine. London, 1910.
T>. Dewar, Handbook of the Records of the United Provinces. 1919.

E. H. Garrison, History of Medicine. London, 1917.

Handbook of the Bombay Government Records, by A. F. Kindersley
Bombay, 1921.

Handbook to the Records of the Government of India, 1748-55. Calcutta

1925.

THE NABOBS

<SL

S. C. Hill, Catalogue of MSS. in European Languages, II. (The Orme
Papers) Oxford, 1916.

Hobson-Jobsoyi, by Col. Yule and A. C. Burnell, Ed. by W. Crooke.
London, 1903.

Indian Monumental Inscriptions, II. Lahore, 1910.

Madras Monuments, etc., compiled by J. J. Cotton. Madras, 1905.
Dictionary of National Biography.

Sir G. Watt, Dictionary of Economic Products of India. London, 1890.

VIII. NEWSPAPERS

Seton-Kerr, Selections from the Calcutta Gazettes, 1784-1823, 5 vols. 1864.
The Madras Courier, 1790-2. (British Museum)

The India Gazette, 1782-5. (British Museum)

Hickey’s fournal, 1780-2. (British Museum)

IX. PRINTS, DRAWINGS, etc.

Calcutta and its Environs —lithos from Sir C. D’Oyley's Drawings (1800
30). London, 1848.

D’Oyley, Williamson and Blagdon, The European in India. 1813.

Thcs. Daniels, Oriental Scenery, two series. London, 1795 and 1797.
Fraser's Views of Calcutta. 1824-5.

Capt. R. M. Grindlay, Views in Bombay and Ceylon (1810-20). London,
1826.

Salt's Views in Egypt, Abyssinia, India, etc. London, 1809.

Island of Bombay and the Vicinity, Twelve Views (1791-2). J. Wales.
London, 1803.

Punjab Notes and Queries.
Bengal Past and Present.

INDEX

[Important topics discussed in the text arc printed in small capitals .]

Adams, John, 81.

Adlercon, Colonel, 31.
Adventurers, 32, 33, Ch. V.
Afghans, 26.

Agra, 80, 89, 113.

Aislabie, John, 69.

Akbar, Emperor, 137.

Akbar Shah II, 92.

Albuquerque, 105, 112.

Aldermen, 8, 22.

Ali Ibrahim Khan, 135, 137.

Ah Verdi Khan, 26. ' ~

Allahabad, 133.

Allard, General, 92.

Ambur, 29.

Americans, 32.

Amusements, 17, 34, 36, 56, 65, 79,

8 9 . 146.

Ananda Ranga Pillai, 20, 127.
Anglo-Asia tics, see Eurasians.
Angria, 66, 67. *

Anjengo, 80.

Anwar-addin Khan, Nawab, 29.
Arcot, 24.

Armenians, 8, 21, 46-9, 77.

Arrack, 14, 34, 45.

Asaf-ad-daula, Wazir, 83, 133.
Asiaticus, 36, 131.

\ liARVA Veda, 103.

Aungicr, Gerald, 5, 66, 63 .
Anrangzeb, Emperor, 2, 66.
Australia, 59, 61.

Austin Friars, 105.

Avitabile, General, 92.

^ack Bay, 77.
gaglivi. Dr., 103.

Bak sarf 25>
galasore, 80.

3 -nians (of-Bengal), 38, 44, 48,
54 . 87, 126, 128, 134.

^anian Clothes, 22.

a ptists (of Bengal), 120, 121.
garaset, 37, og.

®areilly, 89, 90.

garrackpore, 37, 49.

anvell, Henry, 132.
gnssein. 66, 67.
gechc* r , Charles, 132.
g e gam Satnru, 92.
genares, 82, 132.
gendysh, Charles, 36.

e ncram Pandit, 135.

Eenfield, Paul, I3 o.

Bengal, 24, 25, 26, 3 i, 32, 80, 91,
n 3 , 121.

Bentinck, Lord William. 140, 144.
Bernier, Francis, 33, 96, 129.
Betel Nut, 22.

Bihar, 91.

Bissambu Pandit, 135, 136.
Blakiston, Major, 34, 62, 87, 93, 99.
Blane, Dr., 84.

Boigne, Comte de, 92, 93, 133.
Bombay, 5, 7, 11, 31, 45, 66-79, 113.
Bonnell, Jeremiah, 70.

Boone, Charles, 69, 70, 71, 81.
Boscawen, Admiral, 31.

Brahmins, 105, 123, 126.
Briethaupt, Lutheran missionary’,
120.

Broach, 79.

Brown, Rev. David, 110-12, 119-21,
142.

Brown, Rev. St. John, 109.
Buckshaw, 5, 68.

Bungalows, 49* 5 °> 5 1 -
Burnell, A. C., 99.

Burrington, Charles, 33 .

Bussy, General de, 24, 29.

Calcutta, 3, 7, n, 15, 30, 37, 38, 46,
49, 65, 95, 97. Ch. III.

Calicut, 80.

Caliph Mansur, 96.

Callow, Councillor, 70.

Campbell, Captain, 34.

Canterbury, Archbishop of, 120.
Cape of Good Hope, 42.

Capital Punishment, 6.

Capuchins, The, 9, 105, 113, 114,
116.

Carey, Rev. William, 59, 63, 92,
108, 120, 122. 125, 142.
Carmelites, The, 105.

Carnac, General, 132.

Carnatic, The, 24, 42, 43.

Caventou, 103.

Cawnpore, 83, 88.

Celebrations, 20, 21, 65.

Ceylon, 2.

Chambers, Sir Robert. 119.
Champion, Colonel, 38.
Chandemagore, 2, 49, 62.

Chaplains, ro, 58, 141, Ch. VII.
Chapman (friend of Hastings), 135,
I3&-

Chamock, Job, 2, 3, 28.

an

THE NABOBS

TERS, 6, 21 .

epauk Palace, 46.

Child, Sir J., 2, 5, 11, 66, 69, 107.
Chinchon, Countess of, 102.
Chinsura, 2, 51, 61.

Choultry Plain, 17.

Chowringhee, 37, 49, 142.

Chunam, 45, 46, 72, 75.

Church, 15, 16, 49, 50, 75, Ch. VII.
Clive, Robert, 14, 16, 25, 26, 28, 32,
38-40, 57, 60, 107, 109, 132.
Cochin, 82, 112.

Colaba, 77.

Colebrooke, H. T., 135, 146.

Collins, Colonel, 93.

Common Table, ii, 12, 14, 16.
Cooch Behar, Rajah of, 6o, 61.
Copenhagen, 117.

Cordinei, Rev. T., 73, 78.
Cornwallis, Marquis, 24, 26, 29, 31,
33. 4°. 57* 6o * 65* 82, 89, 96, 101,
121, 132, 137, 138, 140, 144, 145.
Cranganore, 112.

Cuddalore, 80, 119, 120.

Currie, Dr., 102.

Dacca, 60, 80.

Diamper, Synod of, 105.

Dancing, 34, 35.

Daniels (painter), 85.

Danish Mission (Royal), 62, 117,
119, 120, 121.

Dauphin, 103.

Da’ud Khan, 2, 20.

Deccan, 29.

Debarta, 59.

Delhi, 26, 27, 33, 82, 89, 93, 133.
Dewanni (or civil administra¬
tion), 25, 31.

Dewar, Douglas, 97.

Diamond Harbour, 48.

Dillinagoga, 77.

Dinner, 14, 46, 54, 56, 65, 78, 87,
89. 93. 133-

Directors, 6, 7, 12, 15, 28, 38, 106,
115-

Disease, 4, 5, 68, 100-4.

Dixon, Sergeant, 115.

Dodwvli, Prof. H. N., 115, 147.
Dominicans, 105.

D’Oyley, Sir John, 36, 37, 82, 99.
Draper, Eliza, 8i.

Dress, 128, 129.

Drinking, 68, 89.

Dubash, 21, 44, 127.

Dubois, Abbd, 59, 62, 63, 80, 105,
108, 113, 114, 115, 121.

Duncan, Jonathan, 71, 77.

Dunster, Thomas, no.

Duff, William, 146.

<sl

127

Dupleix, 14, 24, 26, 29, 62
Dutch, 11, 13, 51.

East Indians, see Eurasians.
Education, 63, 83, 124.

Edward VII, King, 146.

Elephanta, 77.

Elers, George, 99.

Ellis, William, 29.
Entertainments, see Amusements.
Eurasians, 13, 46, 47, 49, 50, 57, 58,
61, 62-4, 73, 132, 142.

Europeans, 6, 46, 48, 49, 128-30,
131* *44-

Fabricius, 118, 119, 120.

Factors, 5-7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 37.
Faizulli Khan, 135.

Farhad Baksh, 84.

Farruksiyar, 21, 27.

Fay (Mrs.), 42, 43, 44, 56, (Mr.) 58.
Fenton (Mrs.), 35, 36, 141.

Fletcher (Sir Robert), 130.

Foote, W., 32.

Forbes, James, 32, 73, 75, 78, 79,
146.

Fordyce, Rev. William, 109.

Fort St. George, 120.

Fountain (Baptist missionary), 120.
Fowke, J. K., 109.

Franciscans, The, 105.

Francke, Dr. Gotthilf, 122.

Fraser, William, 93.

Frederick IV, King of Denmark,
117.

French, 13, 24, 32, 62, 64, 114.
Fryer, Captain, 97, 101, 114.
Fullerton, Ensign, 20.

Fulta, 48.

Gambling, 17.

Games, see Amusements.
GangaGobind Singh, 135.

Garden Houses, 45-9, 72, 76, 77.
Garden Reach, 17, 37, 48, 49.
Gardens, 4, 14, 35, 50.

Gardner (Col.), 92.

Gayer, Sir John, 11, 69.

General table, see Common table.
Germans, 32.

Germany, 116.

Ghaziporc, 80.

Gheria, 67.

Ghulam Kadir Khan, 26.

Gingi, 2.

Goa, 2, Oi, 105, 112, 113, 114.
Goddard, Colonel, 67.

Gomastahs, 29, 32, 52.

Goornty, River, 84.

Government House, Calcutta, 49,

65.

INDEX

or, see President.

(Maria), 73, 77, 79, 97, 100,
126, 139.

Grandpr6 de, 97, 98.

Grant, Charles, 118, 119.

Grapes, 5, 12.

Grattan, 13 1.

Grose, Dr., 68, 124.

Gujerat, 26, 91.

Gumboon, 80.

Gumti, River, 84.

Hackary Carts, 74.

Hamilton, Alexander, 2, 3, 5, 9, 10,
11, 15, 68.

Half-castes, see Eurasians.

Hare, Thomas, 146.

Hart, Rev. A., 35.

Hastings, Marquess, 35.

Hastings, Warren, 25, 26, 29, 32, 33,
34, 42, 63, 65, 96, 101, 129-131,
I 33 » 135 . 136. 140, 144* 146.
Hansl.opp, E., 98.

Hawkins, Capt., 128.

Hearsay, Major Hyder, 62, 92.
Iieber, Bishop, 93, 105.

Hickey, William, 36, 50, 58, 63, 82,
88, 97-9, 146,

Hindus and Hinduism, 22, 51, 62,
72, 74, 105, n6, 118, 125-30, 135,
136, 143, 144, 146.

Hill, S. C., 84.

“ Hobson-Jobson,” 96.

Hospitals, 3, 4, 10, 60.

Hookah, The, 22, 36, 53, 54, 55,
79, 93, 98-100, 133.

Hughly, 3, 11, 42, 48, 60, 63, 80.
Hughes, Sir E., 130.

Hunter, Sir A., 35.

Hunter, Sir Martin, 89.

1 -Iuxham, Dr. John, 103.
Hyderabad, 24, 26, 67.

Hyder Ali, 25, 42, 43, 82, 85, 86,
121, 124.

Indian Music, 33.

Indians, 47, 48, 49, 59, 62, 67, 71,
72, 79, 116, 138, 139, 140.

Indigo Planters, 91, 92.
Indo-Britons, see Eurasians.

Ives, Dr., 102, 103, 131.

Jacquemmont, Victor de, 36.
Jenner, Dr., 103.

Jesuits, So, 103, 113, 114, 116.

Jews, 8.

Johnson, Surgeon, 102.

Jones, Lady William, 20.

Jones, Sir William, 130, 135, 146.
Juvenal of Agra, Padre, 117.

Karim Khan Zend, 98.

Karnal, 93.

Kasimbazaar, So.

Kaye, Sir John, 92.

Keigwin, 2, 66, 69.

Ken, Bishop, no.

Kerr, Chaplain, 112.

Iveyserling, Count, 126.

Kiernander, Rev., 117, 11S, 119,
120, 121, 142.

Kindersley, Mrs., 35, 95.

King, Arthur, 13.

Kohloff, Rev. A., 119.

Koil (Aligarh), 92.

La Martini^re College, 83, 84.
Lancisci, Dr., 103.

Langhorne, Sir William, 9.

Lewis, Rev. George, 10, no, 120.
Leyrit, M. de, 127.

Lind, Dr., 102, 103.

Liquor, see Wine.

Lock, John, 7, 70.

Lockyer, Charles, 2, 4, 6, 9, 13, 107.
Low Europeans (see also Vaga¬
bonds), 37, 49, 59, 60, 138, 143"
Lowji, see Wadia.

Loxa, 102.

Lugo, Cardinal de, 102.

Lutherans, 106, 117, 118, 121.
Lucknow, 82, 83, 85, 89, 113, 132,
133 -

Macartney, Lord, 25, 97, 124.
Macdonald, John, 20, 129.
Macintosh, John, 99.

Macnamara, Michael, 60.

Madeira, 28, 42, 134.

Madras, 8, 9, n, 15, 16, 30, 97, 113,
114, 121.

Madura, 80, 105, 113.

Mah<$, 82.

Malabar, 82, 119, 123.

Malabar Hill, 72.

Mandclslo, Albert de, 20, 61.
Manucci, Niccolo, 10, 80, 106, 121,
129.

Marathas, 11, 24, 25, 67, 77, 92,
132, 135 -

Marl borough, Fort, 80.

Marshman, Dr., 108, 120.

Martin, General Claud, S3, 84, 92,

133 -

Martyn Henry, 108, no, 116, 118,
119, 125, 141.

Masulipatam, 2, 11, 8o, 97.

Mayors, 8, 21, 22.

Mayor's Court, 8.

Metcalfe, Sir Charles, 55, 92.

Morse, Benjamin, 7, 70.

THE NABOBS

, leton. Magistrate at Dacca, 60.

Padre, 114.

Kasim, 25, 29, 32.

Mir Jafar, 32.

Mirza Abu Taleb Khan, 84.

Mirza Najaf Khan, 26.

Mirza Suliman Sheko, 92.
Missionaries, 62, 141, 142, Ch. VII.
Mitchell, John, 109.

Mocha, 78.

Moghul Emperors, 25, 26, 127.
Moghuls, 25,. 51, 128, 129.
Mohammad Ali, 24, 25, 34, 130.
Mohammad Bakht, 133.
Mohammedans, see Mussulmans.
Moravians, 120.

Mortality, 3, 5.

Mubarak-ad-daula, 132, 138.
Mudnabati, 120.

Munro, Sir Thomas, 91, 136.

Munro, Innes, 101, 131.
Murshidabad, 2, 82, 132, 138.
Mussulmans, 10, 22, 62, 72, 73, 74,
77, 121, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129,
130, 131, 134* x 35. 136, 140, 143.
*44-

Mysore, 24, 85.

Nabobs, 32, 33, 37, 43, 147.

Nadir Shah, 26.

Nadjaf Garh, 92.

Nautch, 34, 35, 36, 79, 133, 134,
139 .

Nawabof Arcot, 47,89,130,131,138.
Nawab Asaf-ad-daula, 135.

Nawab of Bengal, 132.

Nawab Mulka Humani Begum, 92.
Negapatam, 43.

Nepal, 113.

Niebuhr, 67, 77, 98, 101.

Nizam of Hyderabad, 132.

Nobili, Roberto de, 105, 113.

Obie, Colonel, 61, 120.

Ochterlony, General Sir David, 93.
Officers, 85, Ch. V.

Ord, R., 107.

Orme, Robert, 6.

Ostend Co., The, 2.

Oudh, 26, 83, 91, 132.

Ovington, Rev. Thos., 2, 5, 12, 13,
14, 20, 68, 71, 97, 101, 106, no,
128.

Owen, John, 107.

Pagd, M. de, 33.

Palanquin, 50, 55, 70, 76, 86, 100,
* 31 -

Palk, Rev. Robert, 107.

Palmer, Colonel, 57, 63, 130,

(General) 135, 136, 139.

<SL

Panipat, 26.

Paris, Treaty of, 31.

Parsis, 67, 72, 73, 74, 75, 127, 129,
„ J 3o, 134-

Parsons, Abraham, 76, 98.
Parthenio, 135.

Parr, Dr., 93.

Patna, 29, 80, 113.

Pearse, Col., 40.

Pelsaert, Francisco, 129.

Pelletier, 103.

Persians, 122, 123.

Perron, General, 92, 133.

Pigot, Lord, 25, 47, 130, 131.

Pitt, Thomas, i, 2, 6.

Plassey, 24, 32.

Plutschau (Danish missionary), 117.
Pondicherry, 2, 43, 62, 64, 75, 83,
Ix 3-

Population, ii, 29, 30, 78.
Portuguese, 1, 5, n, 12, 13, 21, 22,
45, 4 6 > 47> 49. 6i, 63, 64, 66, 73,
77, 79, 105, 114, 117, 128, 129.
Poor Europeans, see Low Euro¬
peans.

Presbyterians, 3.

President, 6, 7, 14, 15, 21.

Price, S., 60.

Punch, 12, 14, 21, 34, 45.

Punch Houses, 10, 14, 17, 30, 45,
48, 78, 134-
Punkahs, 50, 96-8.

Quarrels, 7, 8, 12, 13.

Quinine, 103.

Rajputs, 135.

Ranjit Singh, 92.

Ram Mohan Roy, 144, 146.

Raworth, John, 10.

Raymond of Hyderabad, 92.
Reinhardt, Walter, 92.

Rennell, Colonel, 39, 40, 57, 73, 107.
Roach, Major John, 21.

Roman Catholics, 3, 63, 73, 105,
112, 116, 117, 118.

Royal Troops, 31, 33, 57, 142.
Rumbold, Sir Thomas, 124.

Rupe Loll Mullick, 141.

Sa’adat Ali, 83, 138.

St. David, Fort, 10, 30, 43, 80.

St. Francis Xavier, 105.

St. Thomas's Mount, 17, 43, 45.
Salabat Jung, 131.

Salerno, School of, 103.

Salsette, 66, 77, 79.

San Thome, 112, 114.

Schultze, Benjamin, n8, 124.
Scrofton, Charles, 135.

Siraja-daula, 24.

INDEX

pore, 2, 49, 61, Ij20, 121.
•erfaji, 131, 146.

Seringapatam, 121.

Servants, 51, 5 2 > 54* 73-
Servants, European, 53.

Seven Years’ War, 24, 31.

Shah Alam, Emperor, 26, 133.
Shah Jehan, Emperor, 129.

Sheriff, 22.

Shipman, Sir Abraham, 31.

Shore, F. J., 132.

Shore, Sir John, 26, 32, 34, 38, 65,
84, 96.

Shuja-ad-daula, 25, 132.

Sidi, The, 66, 67.

Sikhs, 26.

Simeon, Charles, 108, in.

Sindia, 92.

Skinner, Lt.-Col. Jas., 13, 62, 92,
133.

Slaves, 33, 73.

Smith, Captain, 8.

Smith, William, 60.

Soldie ks, 15, 77* 78.

S.P.C.K., 63, 117, 118, 119, 121,
122.

S.P.G., 117.

Sport, 16, 17, 46, 89.

Stavorinus, 98, 103.

Stephens, Padre, 114.

Stoddard, Lothrop, 144.

Strutt, John, 70, 71.

Surat, 2, 6, 10-12, 14, 15,-20, 33,
66, 67, 72, 74, 80, 97, 98, 127.
Surman, John, 27, 38.

Swally River, 66.

Swartz, Frederick Christian, 59, 60,
62,108, 116,118-25, 131,142,146.
Switzerland, 116.

Symonds, John, 69.

Symson, Captain, 101.

Taffazul Hussain Khan, 136.
Tamils, 114, 117, 122.

Tanjore, 8o, 113, 119* 122, 123, 130,

131-

Tanjore, Rajah of, 121, 123, 124.
Taverns, sec Puncli Houses.
Taylor, Major J., 103.

Tea, 20, 46, 55, 56, 78.

Tellicherry, 80, 81.

Tennant, Reverend W., 35.
Theatines, The, 105, 114.

Thomas of Hansi, George, 92, 133,
142.

Thomas, John, 120.

Tiffin, 46, 78, 86.

Tillotson, Archbishop, no.

Tipu, Sultan, 24, 42, 43, 87.

Tod, Colonel, 136.

Topasses, 9, 13, 61, 62, 112.
Topham, John, 33, 101.

Torti, Francisco, Dr., 103.
Traiiquebar, 2, 43, 120, 122.
Travancore, 24.

Trichinopoly, 24, 62, 118, 119, 122,
123.

Trincomalee, 42, 43.

Turner, Charles, 135.

Twining, Thomas, 85, 92, 117.

Vagabond Europeans {sec Low
Europeans) 45, 59. bo.

Valentia, Lord, 64, 75, 84, 85, 121,
133.

Ventura, General, 92.

Verelst, William, 132.

Versorah, 79.

Virapoly, 113;

Voulton, Surgeon, 10, 106.

Wadia, Lowji Lassaramjee, 66, 67,
75.

Wadgaun, Convention of, 66.
Wagner, Tobias Henry, 60.

Waite, Sir Nicholas, 7, 69.

Walker, Benjamin, 7.

Wake, Archbishop, 106.

War of the Austrian Succession, 24.
Ward, Dr., 108.

Warner, Chaplain, 20.

Watson, Admiral, 31, 74, 102.
Watson, Colonel, 48.

Wellesley, Arthur, Duke of Welling¬
ton, 87, 88.

Wellesley, Marquis, I, 24, 26, 28, 43,
50, 59 , 65, 96, 112, 139, M°, M 4 »
145-

West Indians, 91.

Whisky, 34.

Whitehill, John, 81.

Wilkins, 135, 146.

Williams, Capt., 109.

Williamson, Capt. Thos., 37, 5L 95*
99, 103. I 39- ^ _

Wine, 12, 17, 20, 34, 60, 67, 75, oi f
86, 134.

Women, European, 12, 36, 42, 79,
89, 133 * 140, * 45 -
Woolf Tope, 17.

Woolley, Mr., 70, 71.

Writers, 7, 8, 9, 38.

Yule, Colonel, 96, 99.

Zenana, 36, 63, 64, 141, 145
Ziegenbalg (Lutheran missionary),
117, 119.

Zoffany, 84, 85.

Zuhur-ul Nissa Begam, 92.

k

• 9^501